The Sudoku Puzzle Murders Read Free Page B

long as it didn’t involve defining words. And intersecting words. And fitting words into five-letter blanks. And knowing whether a word was being used as a noun or a verb. Cora hated nouns and verbs. At least, she hated identifying them, classifying them, and saying how they were used in a sentence. Her teacher
tried to drum that into her head in high school, just at the time she was becoming very interested in nonverbal activities.
    Cora’s language skills had suffered. Not that it had harmed her any. None of the many men she’d married had ever asked her to parse a sentence.
    Sherry needed a good clue for profligate . Not to be confused with prodigal . Which she would never do unless distracted by an upcoming wedding. Good lord. If marriage addled her brain, maybe it wasn’t worth it. Maybe they should call the whole thing off.
    The phone rang.
    Sherry scowled. She hated phone calls when she was constructing. She decided to let the answering machine pick up. Unless it was Cora or Aaron. Sherry checked the caller ID. Damn. Caller unknown . That could be anything, from an unlisted number, to a pay phone, to a telemarketer. Oh, well, if it was the last, she could just hang up. But what if it was someone really annoying? Like her ex-husband? Or her ex-husband’s wife? Or her ex-husband’s father-in-law, for that matter?
    Sherry frowned, snatched up the phone. “Hello?”
    “Sherry. Thank God you picked up. I was afraid you’d think I was a crank.”
    “You are a crank, Cora. Why don’t you get a cell phone?”
    “I’d lose it. I’d let the battery run down. It would ring in a movie theater or a church.”
    “When was the last time you were in church?”
    “I don’t know. I suppose I must have been getting married.”
    “You can leave a cell phone off, Cora. Only turn it on when you need it.”
    “It could still get lost.”
    “So put it in your purse.”
    “You know what my purse is like? I’d have to empty it out every time I wanted to find the damn thing. It’s embarrassing, dragging out six different kinds of birth control.”
    “Why do you have six different kinds of birth control?”

    “Do I have any kids? I’ve never even been pregnant. Except to force a proposal out of the guy who was terminally shy.”
    “You were pregnant?”
    “No, I just said I was. The guy was too timid to question my finding.”
    “Cora, why did you call?”
    “To tell you how well it went.”
    “It did.”
    “I’ll say. Aaron was there and I knocked his socks off.”
    “Aaron’s back?”
    “Yeah. He came right from the airport.”
    “He didn’t call.”
    “He will. He went back to the paper to file his story. Anyway, he didn’t know I could solve sudoku. He thought Harvey was going to hang me out to dry.”
    “Harvey?”
    “Yeah. He surprised me with a puzzle from Will Shortz and challenged me to a fight.”
    “How did that go?”
    “I kicked his ass. Anyway, that’s not why I’m calling.”
    “You wanna run through three or four more topics before you tell me?”
    “You’re rather testy. Prewedding jitters.”
    “That’s one topic.”
    “That’s a lot of topics. That’s Aaron. And Dennis. And Brenda. And Becky. And Reverend What’s-his-face.”
    “Kimble.”
    “Yeah, him. Listen, has Dennis been around lately?”
    “Why?”
    “Why? Well, there’s a restraining order, for one thing.”
    “I mean, why are you asking?”
    “To find out if he has ! Jesus, you and Aaron are impossible!”
    “Aaron? Has he been asking?”
    “He hasn’t even been here. Forget Aaron. Just listen a minute.”

    “I really have to do this puzzle.”
    “Right. Because you’re the brain trust, and I’m just the pretty face. Well, guess what? I got a job I can actually do.”
    “What’s that?”
    Cora filled her niece in on the sudoku book.
    Sherry was skeptical at best. “A Japanese publisher wants you to do a Puzzle Lady book?”
    “Yeah. Of sudoku. Is that a problem?”
    “Not for me. I can’t do