Free Puzzled to Death by Parnell Hall

the door locked, and finally gives up. Or finds the door open, walks in, finds Judy dead as a mackerel on the linoleum, panics, and splits. Either way, it works pretty nice for Joey Vale.”
    “I thought the neighbor saw the mystery guest arrive. So why didn’t she see Joey Vale?”
    “Oh, but she did. What she saw was Joey Vale
arriving
. She says she went to sleep right after that. Joey Vale arrived and killed his wife. The witness, Mrs. Roth, went to bed and missed seeing Joey Vale leave, and she missed seeing the mystery guest arrive and leave, either in frustration or in a panic, depending on whether the door was locked or open, take your pick.”
    “I don’t like it,” Sherry said.
    “Why not?”
    “It’s a horrible timetable. You’re assuming this guy’s smart enough to kill his wife and give himself an alibi—well, look at the huge risks he takes. He could be seen driving away from the bar. He could be seen driving back. He could be seen driving along the road. And when hegets home and sees the light out—if he’s any smart at all—he’ll figure it’s off because his wife’s lover’s coming. In fact, that would have to be part of his plan, because if the light was
on
, he should know he would be seen by Mrs. Roth going into his house. So he’s gotta
plan
on the light being out. He knows the man’s coming, but he can’t know when, so here’s someone who could catch him in the act of killing his wife. It’s just a very bad bet.”
    “Yeah, but it’s
possible,
” Cora insisted. “And the police let Joey go on the grounds it wasn’t possible.”
    “Uh-huh,” Sherry said, unimpressed. “You got any theories that don’t involve such strict timetables?”
    “Sure. Joey comes home, has a brouhaha with his wife. Pastes her one, knocks her unconscious. While she’s out cold, he trusses her up like a chicken, gags her, stuffs her in a sack, sticks her in the trunk of his car. Drives to the Rainbow Room and shoots pool. Sometime between nine and eleven he slips out to the parking lot, pops the trunk, croaks his wife, goes back inside, and shoots pool for the rest of the night.”
    “And no one saw him lug her body in and out?”
    “Dark when he leaves, dark when he comes back. Works for me.”
    “I’m not sure it will work for Chief Harper,” Sherry observed.
    “Never fear. I wouldn’t try to sell the chief on anything unless I had more to go on.” Cora chugged down the rest of her coffee, put the cup on the table, exhaled happily. “Well, it’s certainly been a productive night.” She looked at Sherry and repeated smugly, “Glowing.”

“I DON’T SEE WHY YOU DON’T WANT TO DEMONSTRATE, ” Harvey Beerbaum said peevishly. Harvey had come up with the bright idea that during the Friday-night festivities to kick off the tournament, he and Cora would demonstrate the art of crossword-puzzle construction by creating a puzzle on the spot in front of everyone. “It would be such fun. And we’d take turns. You’d add a word, I’d add a word, you’d add a word. Of course we could try to trip each other up.”
    Cora Felton, who could no more construct a crossword puzzle than she could a suspension bridge, would have loved to trip Harvey Beerbaum up there and then—physically, forcefully, and right on his erudite rump. “Fun for us, maybe, but for the participants? Boring, boring, boring. They don’t want a lecture, they want to
play
. I thought Friday night was going to be fun.”
    “It is, it is,” Harvey said. “I merely thought we could take ten minutes out to construct an uncomplicated puzzle.”
    Cora avoided looking at Sherry Carter, who was among those in attendance at the town hall for the tournament committee meeting, played instead to Iris Cooper. “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that this convention shouldn’t be to glorify
us
. Now, the celebrities are another matter. Some of them are constructors, aren’t they? How about getting them to donate a