Part 18 (1/2)
Aaron grabbed it before Sherry could.
”Hey! You didn't do that before we were married.”
”Sorry. You go first.”
”Okay. Now, you put this together with the crossword.”
”Crossword!” Aaron said. ”What crossword?”
”Oh,” Cora said. ”Is your wife holding out on you? That's never a good sign.”
”There was a crossword?”
”Don't ask me,” Cora said, putting up her hands. ”I'm not the crossword person. I'm just the pretty face.”
”Sherry?”
Sherry grimaced. ”There's a clue, and you can't write it. Would you like to know what it is?”
”I'm your husband.”
”Good. Get in husband mode and out of reporter mode and I'll show you the crossword.”
”What crossword? What are you talking about?”
”Go get it, Sherry. I'll fill him in.”
Cora told Aaron what happened while Sherry retrieved the crossword.
Aaron picked up the puzzle, looked it over. ” 'Being a bad boy in court cut his life very short?' That points to you.”
”Thanks for your help,” Cora said. ”I never could have figured that out.”
”So, what does it mean?”
”Seeing as how I didn't kill him, I haven't a clue.”
”What about the KenKen numbers? Are they any help?”
”Not really. According to the crossword puzzle, the answers to 20 and 47 Across tell you where to look. The answers are 'second line.' If that means the second line of the KenKen, it's 3, 5, 6, 2, 1, 4. Which is not particularly helpful.”
”Suppose the numbers aren't numbers,” Aaron said.
Sherry frowned. ”How could that be?”
”Easy. They stand for letters of the alphabet.”
”Pretty short alphabet. You've got only six numbers. A, B, C, D, E, F.”
”So?” Aaron said. ”Maybe that's all you need. Let's see what we've got. The numbers are 3, 5, 6, 2, 1, 4. That's C-E-F-B-A-D.”
”Cefbad?” Sherry said. ”That's not particularly illuminating.”
” 'Bad' sounds like Melvin,” Cora pointed out.
”Yeah. And what's 'cef'?”
”That's a little harder,” she admitted. ”I suppose they could be the notes of a scale. As long as you don't have a ti.”
”What?” Aaron said.
”You've got do, re, me, fa, sol, la. You don't have ti.”
”We have coffee,” Aaron said.
”Hit him for me, Sherry. Come on, what if they're notes of a scale. Then 3 would be me, 5 would be sol, 6 would be la, 2 would be re, 1 would be do, and 4 would be fa. So we've got me-sol-”
”Isn't that a soup?” Aaron suggested.
”You're not helping,” Sherry said.
”And we've got la-re-do.”
”The town! It's a soup in a town!”
”Sherry, you married a wise-a.s.s punk and I'm going to kill him.”
”What's the last one?”
”Fa.” Cora looked at Aaron. ”Because it's too fa to go to la-re-do to get your soup.”
”Okay,” Sherry said. ”If it's not the first six letters of the alphabet and it's not musical notes, what have we got?”
”Have we ruled out the 'numbers are numbers' theory?” Aaron said.
”Six numbers. It's too short for a telephone number. Too short for a Social Security number.”
”Suppose it's a lottery number?” Cora suggested.
”Oh, that's helpful.”
”Hey, if this number wins, don't blame me.”
”Could it be a license plate number?” Aaron said.
”They're letters and numbers.”