Read The Sudoku Puzzle Murders for Free Online

puzzle?”
    “No. A newspaper with a Puzzle Lady puzzle. Harper copied the puzzle so I could solve it.”
    “Oh, come on !”
    Cora put up her hands. “What can I tell you? Harper wants me to solve it. I know it means nothing. He knows it means nothing. He still wants it solved. So I gotta do it. So you gotta do it. So do it.”
    “Aw, hell. I don’t even remember this one.”
    “You don’t have to remember it. You just have to solve it.” Cora stuck a pencil in Sherry’s hand. “Come on. It’ll sober you up.”

Chapter 10
    Cora bought a skim latte and a raisin bran muffin at Cushman’s Bakeshop, and carried them down the street to the police station. Chief Harper, who had already finished his muffin, looked enviously at Cora’s.
    “What kind of muffin is that?”
    “Raisin bran.”
    “I thought you like cranberry scones.”
    “I do.”
    “That’s not a scone.”
    “No, it’s a muffin. Sherry had one the other day, and it looked good.”
    “Is it?”
    “You want a bite of my muffin?”
    Harper sighed. “The last thing I need is to get hooked on another kind of muffin.”
    “Right. You’d have to start each day making decisions. Horrible for a police chief.”

    “Give me a bite.”
    Cora broke off a piece of the muffin, handed it over.
    “Damn. It is good.”
    “Yeah. For a woman who can’t bake a lick, Mrs. Cushman has mighty good muffins.”
    “Where’s she get her stuff from?”
    “Silver Moon. On the Upper West Side. Best bakery in Manhattan.”
    Harper considered. “You know, I hate to plunge into a murder case on an empty stomach.”
    “Go on, Chief. I’ll hold down the desk until you get back.”
    Cora sat in Chief Harper’s chair, studied the notebook open on his desk.
    Walter Krebbs. Thirty-eight years of age. Married. Divorced. No children. Apartment in Washington Heights. Drove a 2000 tan Chevy. License plate: FYI 3205. FYI made it a plate Cora could remember.
    Time of death was listed as twenty-four to forty-eight hours prior to medical examination. That upped the estimate from the twelve Barney Nathan had originally given.
    Cora finished the report and was back in her own chair when Chief Harper came in with his muffin and a steaming Styrofoam cup of black coffee.
    “Okay,” Harper said. “The world looks a little better now. What can I do for you, Cora?”
    “The fellow who got killed.”
    Harper shrugged. “What about him?”
    “What have you got so far?”
    “Just what it says in my case notes.”
    “Huh?”
    “I assume you read the file while I got my coffee. That saves me having to tell you about it.” Harper gestured to the Bakerhaven Gazette on his desk. “So you can feed it to Aaron Grant.”
    Cora frowned. “What do mean, feed it to Aaron Grant? I told
you I was checking facts for him. I called you last night to get the name right.”
    “Oh, he got the name right,” Chief Harper said drily. “He also got the fact the victim had a crossword puzzle and a sudoku in his pocket.”
    “Oh.”
    “I thought you told me they don’t mean anything.”
    “They don’t.”
    “So why am I reading about them in today’s paper?”
    “Sorry, Chief. We’re a little thin on facts. No murder weapon. No motive. No suspect. Just a corpse. And most likely the guy wasn’t even killed here. Aaron’s gotta write something.”
    “So you gave him the puzzles?”
    “They don’t mean anything. What could it hurt?”
    “I don’t know. So, did you solve ’em for me?”
    “Sure.” Cora reached in her drawstring purse, pulled out the photocopy. “Here’s the puzzle. Remember? ‘ The Puzzle Lady has some advice in case an unexpected guest drops in for dinner. ’”

    Harper took it, read, “‘One steak can serve two. Chop it up and make stew.’ And that’s how to deal with an unexpected guest?”
    “Yeah. If it sheds any light on your murder, I’ll eat it.”
    “Well, ‘chop it up.’ The guy did have his head cut open.”
    “Yeah, because of the puzzle,”