{"id":812,"date":"2016-05-06T15:03:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T15:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zatma.org\/new-wp\/?p=812"},"modified":"2016-05-06T15:04:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T15:04:25","slug":"the-crossword-puzzle-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"The Crossword Puzzle (#6)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Ming<\/dt>\n
Ming Zhen Shakya<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\u00a0To see more literature about Zen and the Art of Investigation:<\/h6>\n
http:\/\/www.zenanthonywolff.com<\/a><\/strong><\/i><\/h5>\n
<\/h6>\n
\n

The Crossword Puzzle<\/h2>\n

by Anthony Wolff (Ming Zhen Shakya)<\/strong><\/p>\n

To see all published chapters of “The Crossword Puzzle” click here<\/a><\/p>\n

PART 6:\u00a0A TOUCH OF JAIL<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Grand Jury had no choice but to indict Nola.\u00a0 The D.A. convinced them that she was having a torrid love affair with Spencer Ghent and had gotten pregnant, as evidenced by the letter, and by her sister\u2019s fury. Also, Nola had been cheated out of her share of the syndication money and wanted revenge. There was a relatively strong rumor that she was going to get a large Certificate of Deposit held in trust for her by Spencer.\u00a0 He could, of course, had cashed that CD in himself if he had ever gotten short of money and she didn\u2019t want to risk that because of his impending expenses on the new clinic addition.\u00a0 A house employee, Hines Whitman, had seen her leave the scene of the crime moments after a gunshot had been heard.\u00a0 Everyone else in the house had an unassailable alibi. Finally, she and another foreign lover had cheated local citizens out of $155,000 in a phony land deal.\u00a0 She had betrayed every person who had ever shown her kindness.<\/p>\n

On November 25th, Nola Harriman was arrested and placed in a county holding cell. \u00a0 Ellis Foyle met with her.\u00a0 \u201cUnless they can find a hard-up magistrate, you\u2019re not due to be formally arraigned until next Monday because of the Thanksgiving Day schedule.\u00a0 I\u2019m willing to pay your bail, but I just can\u2019t get in touch with my broker. So sit tight for a day or a week and don\u2019t worry. I\u2019ll get you out.\u00a0 Meanwhile, do not talk to anyone about anything. \u00a0 Don\u2019t make friends.\u00a0 You have no friends in the joint.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on two separate cases with Graham, so my time isn\u2019t exactly my own.\u00a0 But I won\u2019t let you down.\u00a0 Meanwhile, try to figure out that goofy crossword puzzle.\u00a0 He wrote, \u2018There\u2019s nothing left\u2019 or something on the back and maybe the squares will amplify what could be a suicide note. And take care of yourself. Don\u2019t let anybody get to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry.\u00a0 I can get into a Zen zone and nothing can touch me there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis Foyle, looking around and startled by Nola\u2019s casual yet indomitable attitude to jail, laughed.\u00a0 \u201cHow did you get a power like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola grinned. \u201cOnce I had an apartment in a building that burned down and idiot that I am, I didn\u2019t have renter\u2019s insurance.\u00a0 I lost everything. I had no place to live so my master put me in a temple guest room and gave me a koan to meditate on. For a week I sat and worked on the Koan and I suddenly understood it.\u00a0 It was like magic.\u00a0 Everything was fine again.\u00a0 Life was incredibly beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the Koan?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola laughed.\u00a0 \u201cAll things return to the One.\u00a0 To where does the One return?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the answer?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be told the answer.\u00a0 You have to find it for yourself.\u00a0 And by the way, you look really nice in a business suit. Why don\u2019t you wear one more often?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that a Koan?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis was signing out of the facility when Nola suddenly remembered where Vikram\u2019s letter was. She called to him, \u201cEllis!\u00a0 I remember.\u00a0 I put it inside a reference book in the study.\u201c\u00a0 Immediately Ellis reversed his logout and hurried back to the holding cell.\u00a0 \u201cI had picked the theme, \u2018con men\u2019 and was looking up the histories of some Ponzi scheme operators when I saw it was the time I was supposed to call the\u00a0pension\u00a0<\/em>in Mexico City.\u00a0 They don\u2019t take calls 24\/7.\u00a0 The operator said that the person who could help me had to be called the next day. I had written a lot of Spanish stuff on the envelope and did call and learn Vik was no one they knew.\u00a0 So I continued with the puzzle and stuck the letter inside that book about con men. I forget the name of the book, but it\u2019s on the top shelf nearest the door to the foyer.\u00a0 It\u2019s a kind of yellow book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis immediately called Rowan and together they went to the Ghent house.\u00a0 They found the missing letter which left no doubt that Nola had nothing to do with the missing money.\u00a0 Dave Rowan, who had thought the case against her was extremely weak, spoke to the District Attorney.\u00a0 The decision was made to wait another week for arraignment which would give them more time to obtain more dispositive information.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Nola having no \u201croots\u201d in the community, would be moved into the county jail. By rights she could be held only 48 hours, but Ellis, afraid for her safety, waived the requirement and for the first time he saw a small candle lit in a very dark universe.<\/p>\n

There is a certain deportment, a protocol one should follow in any specific environment.\u00a0 Nola, unfortunately ignorant of holding-cell decorum, entered the strange room awkwardly. She took mincing steps to a metal slab that was held to the wall with chains.\u00a0 Passively, she sat on the edge of the slab and waited for others to act. But they simply sat on the floor propped against the wall.\u00a0 She could tell from the court proceedings that she had just experienced, that in the same room a murder suspect was sitting side by side with the wretched kind of citizen who doesn\u2019t pay traffic fines on time; but what was lacked in security was compensated by brevity.\u00a0 Of the dozen or so women who were with her in the cell, four of them, including the murder suspect, had their names called and the bailiff extracted them from confinement even as more women were added.\u00a0 Nola could only wait in the holding cell for other unknown people to act.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s holding cells were part of the police station and there were only a few such cells.\u00a0 Two small ones for the mentally ill, and two large cells, one for men and the other for women who were mostly held for prostitution, shop lifting, and domestic abuse.\u00a0 The women held as prostitutes waited for their pimps; those held for domestic abuse were oddly fragile and Nola wondered what kind of threat they posed to their husbands. Soon she tired of hearing all the chatter and decided that it was time to meditate. \u201cI\u2019ve been a life-long friend of adversity,\u201d she told herself.\u00a0 The surroundings, however, were not amenable to any friendly settling of her mind.\u00a0 She continued to sit and merely listen.<\/p>\n

Unnaturally nervous, the street-walkers were dressed in cheap provocative clothing.\u00a0 Nola tried to guess their age: they looked older than they were, she thought.\u00a0 They were just worn-out, distorted like over-played video tapes. Every other word they uttered was an obscene expletive in the vocabulary of a ten year old street urchin.\u00a0 The only grammatically correct phrases she could associate with them were inked on their bodies.\u00a0 One of the women watched Nola squint to read in full a line that had been tattooed on another woman\u2019s back.\u00a0 \u201cHey!\u201d she cried out. \u201cYou gots a reader.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tattooed woman, in a kind of teasing dance, backed up to Nola to let her read the entire message. \u201cCowards die many time before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Shakespeare,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I know,\u201d Nola replied. \u201cJulius Caesar.\u00a0 A great line. It\u2019s a nice job of tattooing.\u00a0 Well-centered and spaced.\u00a0 Uniform lettering.\u00a0 Beautiful work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ok.\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna remember that.\u201d\u00a0 With unaccustomed girlish pride she returned to the others.\u00a0 \u201cDidja\u2019 hear that? Uniform letterin\u2019! That\u2019s why it cost so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola lay back on the metal slab that was supposed to function as a bed.\u00a0 She could not sleep and neither could the others who talked, cursed, and wept the entire night.<\/p>\n

In the morning light, they were led into a courtroom over which a visiting magistrate presided.\u00a0 The skimpy, garish garments the prostitutes wore seemed pathetic in the natural wood courtroom\u2019s staid business atmosphere.\u00a0 Graham Corbin, the lawyer Nola had never seen before, represented her in Ellis\u2019s absence.\u00a0 The judge, who was personally aware of Nola\u2019s \u201cmiraculous\u201d cure of Spencer Ghent was glad to accommodate the seeming indifference of the prosecutor. He asked Nola if she were released on bail would she have someone to live with – with an ankle bracelet of course so that she could not leave the immediate area. \u00a0 He gave her an hour to locate someone.\u00a0 Graham Corbin, who had neither money nor credit, handed her his phone and she immediately called Sri Bashumitsu and asked her if she would help both with the relatively small percentage to be paid on the bond if there were one, and also if she would let her use a closet-sized bedroom that had been considered too small to rent.\u00a0 This would make the Norris-Giles House an official but temporary address. \u201cI\u2019ll pay you back the bond percentage as soon as this mess is resolved.\u201d\u00a0 Nola waited for an answer and then repeated the request.<\/p>\n

Sri Bashumitsu chuckled.\u00a0 \u201cWere you under the impression that we\u2019re a bank?\u00a0 We don\u2019t lend bail money; and as far as making this temple your home when we\u2019re just now trying to repair the damage to our reputation that you… you and you alone… have done, all I can say is, \u2018Forget it.\u2019 You should have come to me when you suspected our Tenzo of stealing medicine.\u00a0 You did it your way with him just as you did it your sleazy way with our Abbot.\u00a0 There is no room for you here and please do not call again.\u201d\u00a0 She disconnected the call.<\/p>\n

Stone-faced, Nola turned to Corbin.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve got no one to help me. I\u2019ll have to wait for Ellis to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

When informed of this, the magistrate said that he did not want her returned to the holding cell. \u201cVery well then,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cWould you mind being a guest of the county at our new jail? The food is better and so are the beds… or so I\u2019m told. On Monday they can drop the charges or file them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola nodded and said, \u201cYes. Thank you, Your Honor.\u201d\u00a0 The gavel struck. A bailiff came and handcuffed her, and she was led away to a van that waited outside.<\/p>\n

Officially in limbo, Nola was placed into the custody of women guards who were inured to the awkwardness of strip searching.\u00a0 They put gloved fingers into her vagina and rectum and made sure that there was nothing hidden in her hair.\u00a0 Once they were certain that she had no contraband on her, they pushed her into a warm shower and gave her prison garb to wear, along with bed linens and blanket. She was now #28956 but she was still technically in a holding cell.\u00a0 The jail, she learned, held both convicted prisoners and those who were awaiting trial.\u00a0 She had been moved out of the big cell and placed in a two-person cell.\u00a0 The other woman who occupied it seemed mentally deranged since all she did was brush her hair and sing repeatedly,\u00a0Cow-Cow Boogie<\/em>\u00a0in its entirety.<\/p>\n

Now ensconced in a cellblock, Nola\u2019s prison life was different from her holding cell experience.\u00a0 The other woman, Nora supposed, was losing hair due to stress, so much that it became impossible to eat the food that was delivered through a slot in the barred side of the small room. Long black hairs were on her slim pillow and in her shoes and blanket. When Nola found several hairs on her toothbrush, she gagged and literally got down on her knees and prayed that Monday would come quickly.<\/p>\n

As disgusting as the loose hair and song that the woman endlessly sang were, it was night that was far worse to tolerate. The jail had several tiers. At night the lower lights were extinguished and only a few ceiling lights remained, their dim light creating a kind of smothering fog – not of mist, but rather of hopeless sighs that lay over the lower floors.\u00a0 It gave her a disheartening sense of permanence that drifted down into the darkness; and it seemed necessary for every one of the inmates to let the others know that she was still alive there, hidden in the dense air by shouting a version of, \u201cI\u2019m here.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget me!\u201d\u00a0 Curses hurled at betraying friends and lovers; excuses and reasons for doing what the police had caught them doing; charges of incompetent lawyers, jealous relatives, and racial hatred filled the large cellblock.\u00a0 On and on it went stopped only briefly by the curiosity aroused by vomiting or by everyone\u2019s exhaustion. Nola had listened to each intelligible yell.\u00a0 Morning came and it was as if night had skipped its turn. She thought of the \u201cFasting Buddha\u201d whose ribs showed the terrible effects of starvation and told herself that she had already lost so much that she would hold on to her religion.\u00a0 Ingratitude, betrayal, lies, pain – both psychological and physical – all these \u201ccame with the territory.\u201d\u00a0 She chanted to herself as many chants as she could remember.<\/p>\n

Almost as an afterthought, she remembered the blank page puzzle… those twenty x twenty blank squares that had to do with having nothing left that needed to be at least partially filled.\u00a0 The theme had to have been given on the back flap.\u00a0 The envelope was ready to be mailed.\u00a0 She knew that from the way it had been inserted into the side fold of Spencer\u2019s desk blotter. \u201cHow do you say, \u2018nothing… there\u2019s nothing left?\u2019\u00a0 She had a notepad and a pencil stub in the cell with her and she began to write down words that signified nothing. None; no; nada; naught; empty; bereft; cipher; tapped ; dearth; zip; zilch; bupkis; null; blank;\u00a0 void; zero; extinct; deplete; busted; nil; eradicated; squat; dick; diddly; and from tennis not only \u2018bagel\u2019 but \u201clove\u201d; from math she got Origin; and then she couldn\u2019t think of any more words that signified nothing.<\/p>\n

A guard was watching her.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting down words that mean nothing.\u201d\u00a0 Nola read the list to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could add \u2018zot,\u2019\u201d the guard suggested.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s legal talk that means \u2018It\u2019s nothing significant.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola added \u201czot\u201d to 0the list<\/p>\n

While the guard stayed to watch, Nola explained, \u201cThere are only two words that contain \u2018K\u2019 – blank and bupkis.\u00a0 They probably intersect.\u00a0 I\u2019ll start there.\u201d\u00a0 She began to fill the white boxes in.\u00a0 That was it.\u00a0 After three hours of trial and error, she completed the puzzle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Monday, before she had a chance to show Ellis Foyle the completed puzzle, he had managed to obtain her release and vouched personally for her presence.\u00a0 At a formal arraignment proceeding, the judge, following the recommendation of the visiting magistrate, released her into Ellis\u2019 care, pending a formal charge. The prosecution did not object since by then, they, too, were having doubts about the case. Ellis moved to have the non-specified charges dismissed, but the judge asked for patience in this convoluted matter.<\/p>\n

The telephone company verified the numbers Nola had called and one of the detectives personally talked to the English speaking landlady who supported Nola\u2019s version.\u00a0 Also, Nola had not been cheated out of any syndication money since there was no contract whatsoever to syndicate the puzzles.\u00a0 Dr. Boyle\u2019s description of the state Spencer was in when Nola came to the house made it clear that the patient was hardly in a lovable condition.\u00a0 And Paige regarded it as an insult that her husband would have preferred her sister to her. Forgetting her previous tirade, she announced,\u00a0 \u201cIf I thought for one moment that there was anything between them, I would have sent her packing.\u00a0 No, my husband was enamored with that Swiss doctor.\u00a0 Check it out for yourselves.\u201d\u00a0 They did and witness testimony at the clinic verified the liaison. But in the normal fashion of pit bulls and assistant district attorneys Nola was still the number one candidate, the \u201cprime suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis took her to his house to live, explaining that his wife and children had once occupied the house and Nola had a whole section of it to herself.\u00a0 He gave her a key to the front door and retrieved her Explorer from the police impound station.<\/p>\n

She cleaned the house and washed and ironed his shirts and did everything she could do to pay him back for his kindness.\u00a0 She also cooked dinner which, considering his restaurant ownership, she profusely apologized for.\u00a0 Luckily, his wife, he alleged, was an even worse cook.\u00a0 They had pleasant conversations over dinner and she told him about the woman who had Shakespeare\u2019s line tattooed on her back.<\/p>\n

Ellis repeated,\u2018Cowards die many times before their death.\u00a0 The valiant never taste of death but once.<\/em>\u2019 It\u2019s sort of appropriate for a whore.\u00a0 She risks her life every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remark touched Nola and she felt an additional admiration for the man.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d she said, \u201cbut people need a concise creed to live by.\u00a0 It can be a phrase or a word that gives them some kind of comfort… like Masha in\u00a0The Three Sisters<\/em>.\u00a0 They may not know exactly what it means, but it\u2019s significant to them in a more important way.\u00a0 It\u2019s strange that it\u2019s a complete distortion of the singing horse story.\u00a0 It\u2019s which song he sings or how well he sings it that\u2019s important.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that he sings at all.\u00a0 When I complimented the gal in the cell she was so proud of the uniformity of the script and its spacing that she changed for a moment into an innocent little girl… a girl who didn\u2019t know anything about Julius Caesar or what the quotation meant. Religion works in the same way.\u00a0 I learned a lot from studying Zen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that where you got your special koan?\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked surprised.\u00a0 \u201cNo. Not at all.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that I devoted my spiritual life to Zen Buddhism but it\u2019s not the motto that I use whenever I\u2019m in a worrisome situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you allowed to tell me what it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughed.\u00a0 \u201cSure.\u00a0\u00a0Honi soit qui mal y pense<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis put his head back and laughed.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s the Order of the Garter\u2019s motto.\u00a0 \u2018Evil to him who evil thinks.\u2019 The Queen allows special people to use it when she knights them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knighted me but I learned that if a person has faith, adversity becomes an opportunity – within reason, of course. But the faith has to be real. And if you think harshly about someone you suppose is your enemy, you\u2019re the one who ends up suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI should adopt the motto for myself. \u00a0 You can call me Sir Ellis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, let\u2019s change the subject. How am I going to exonerate myself?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, tell me the extent to which you were involved with Spencer.\u00a0 I need to know the truth if I\u2019m going to counter it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so hard to explain.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand it myself.\u00a0 At first he was just a patient I liked and felt sorry for.\u00a0 And then he began to get better under my regimen and I was proud of him… and myself, too, for the improvement.\u00a0 We started to work on the puzzles and it gave us something besides sickness to think about. We\u2019d laugh and laugh. But he was such a strange guy.\u00a0 There were days in a row that we kept the same routine.\u00a0 But then, with no explanation, he\u2019d take his medicine and then ask me to leave and just lock me out of the room. \u00a0 Same thing when he got better.\u00a0 He\u2019d take his medicine and then suddenly leave the house.\u00a0 And never an explanation.\u00a0 Like… it was none of my business. I\u2019d sit and worry all day.\u00a0 And I guess I began to really fall for him… but then we went to the cabin and – I admit it – I\u2019d have had sex with him except I caught the expression on his face and I could see that there was no love there, no desire… no thought of me.\u00a0 So I went out and slept in the truck.\u00a0 That\u2019s as far as it went.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis laughed.\u00a0 \u201cHave you ever heard of the Razzle Game?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a carnival game that\u2019s been outlawed or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its own extreme way, it\u2019s based on the addictive principle.\u00a0 Aside from getting money, if you played a game in which you won every time you played it, you\u2019d soon lose interest. Even with money, it\u2019s human nature to kill the goose that lays the golden egg by dispensing with common sense protocols.\u00a0 In games of chance, drugs, love, or anything risky, something mysterious happens in the brain.\u00a0 It\u2019s the whole principle behind gambling.\u00a0 To keep a person playing, you\u2019ve got to make him lose – I don\u2019t know what the ratio is… maybe you\u2019ve got to lose two or three times to winning once.\u00a0 But whatever it is, something snaps inside your brain and you fall victim to a euphoric optimism and keep thinking that you can beat the odds… that you can win.\u00a0 Love works on the same addictive principle.\u00a0 A man and woman meet and really get along. They happily date and then, to initiate that infatuated desire or need, one suddenly cools while remaining friendly. Control and ego become the driving force, not love. The intention of winning, or gaining control, keeps the union functioning. They reunite and then the same one cools again. The fear of loss and jealousy replaces true love.\u00a0 But the union rarely ends well. It\u2019s rigged by the brain. It ends in murder or divorce.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as things begin, the way that one person can get another person into that vulnerable zone is like the Razzle Game.\u00a0 Let him win a little and think that he or she can easily master the challenge. But the game… like life… is rigged against the vulnerable player.\u00a0 They\u2019re addicted to the game and try even harder to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember lending a kid in Spence\u2019s frat some of my notes and I needed them back.\u00a0 So as he separated my stuff from his, we sat in the living room and drank beer.\u00a0 Spence was there and we began to talk about Razzle.\u00a0 One of the Frats had a big fund raising carnival and they hired a professional outfit to run the games.\u00a0 Small but crooked stuff… throwing unbalanced balls and shooting ducks with skewed gun-sights. But in a back room they included Razzle by a different name… a football scoring game.\u00a0 They made big money from the suckers who played.\u00a0 And our conversation turned to sex and I remember him saying how you could get any woman you wanted to love you if you applied the gaming addiction ploy.\u00a0 Treat them nice for a certain period of time and then when they thought they had you, disappear or turn cold without explanation… and this would turn on that snapping mechanism in the woman\u2019s brain.\u00a0 \u2018It never failed,\u2019 he said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus.\u00a0 Are you telling me that I fell for that?\u00a0 Lao Tzu said, \u2018If you want to attract someone, take a step back.\u2019 I guess I ought to be proud of myself that I… or maybe Ingrid…\u00a0 finally freed me from such a stupid manipulation – and I didn\u2019t even have to change my environment.\u00a0 You know, during the Viet Nam war the Viet Cong flooded the market with really cheap heroin.\u00a0 Hospitals and police department in the U.S. prepared for a crime wave when these soldiers got home and couldn\u2019t afford the expensive stuff here.\u00a0 But it never happened.\u00a0 The guys went back to the farm were without that jungle atmosphere and just had no desire.\u00a0 The only ones who reverted to drug addiction were the ones who used and were from the mean streets before they went into the service.\u00a0 They were given the choice between the Army and prison. When they got home, the mean street allurements were waiting for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re saying you no longer have feelings for Spence because there\u2019s a big difference in our houses,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u00a0 His has nicer furniture and a built-in cook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOk.\u00a0 You win.\u00a0 Alcoholics should avoid bar rooms and smokers should avoid stairwells.\u00a0 I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis leaned back in his chair. \u201cThat, however, is of no consequence.\u00a0 We have two choices: Spence committed suicide and a person or persons took the gun.\u00a0 Or, Spence was murdered by a person or persons unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPaige has the only watertight alibi.\u00a0 They can stretch the time of death, but not that far to accommodate her appointment with Andre.\u00a0 The other servants alibi each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the kids?\u201d Ellis asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMid-terms.\u00a0 Samantha lost enough time shopping and on top of that they all lost time for the funeral.\u00a0 No, the servants either made his suicide look like murder or they actually did kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut not all the servants, surely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Mrs. Eglington can be a bitch, but she\u2019s quite above murder or conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGregor, Jules, Hines and Gladys.\u00a0 Which ones?\u00a0 I doubt that all four were involved,\u201d Ellis mumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook… the only reason Spence was in the bathroom was to wash GSR off his hands and arms.\u00a0 Now, as a nurse I\u2019ve had to lift bodies.\u00a0 Dead weight is more than a figure of speech.\u00a0 Hines could never lift Spencer two feet not the needed twenty. \u00a0 And Jules either has a cervical spine problem or he\u2019s gold-bricking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not gold-bricking.\u00a0 I remember when he was injured.\u00a0 He\u2019s lucky to be able to use his right hand at all. And Gladys?\u00a0 She weighs less than Hines.\u00a0 Only Gregor could have moved the body to and from the bathroom. And the Coroner said that there were no bruises on the body.\u00a0 If a couple of the lightweights tried to do it, they\u2019d make a mess of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s talk motive,\u201d Nola said.\u00a0 Gregor didn\u2019t know about that primogeniture stipulation.\u00a0 He no doubt thought that he could get Paige to marry him and then he\u2019d be master of the house. \u00a0 He also strikes me as the kind of man who would take obscene photos of Paige… with or without her knowledge.\u00a0 That would be his insurance in case she refused to marry him. So the sooner she became a widow, the sooner he could ride those thoroughbreds in the stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget the money angle.\u00a0 Paige was convinced… or hoped at least… that the reason Spencer was talking to his attorney so much was because of the syndication contract. \u00a0 And then it became the addition to the clinic.\u00a0 The sooner he died, the less he\u2019d be spending – especially on his new lady-love – and the more they\u2019d all inherit. She knew that things were happening fast with the addition.\u00a0 And the kids, except Roland, figured they\u2019d inherit right away.\u00a0 I talked to Spence\u2019s attorney.\u00a0 That clause about making her executrix until all his children were of age was not such an unusual provision.\u00a0 In a way, an insecure man would kind of guarantee his own life against being murdered for his money by his offspring.\u00a0 They\u2019d have to bump off both parents and then they couldn\u2019t be sure whether someone else was named as executor.\u00a0 So we can forget Roland.\u00a0 There was enough real estate for him to sell just one property and get more than enough money to keep him for years.\u00a0 Or, looked at another way, he could make life easy or hard for Paige who any day now will be living in his house as a guest. So even if she had plenty of cash, he still held the trump cards.\u00a0 Still, she could have talked Gregor into helping whoever it was who changed your letter.\u00a0 To me, it looks like Hines and Gregor.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nola sighed. \u201cThey feared that he\u2019d change his Will and leave everything to Ingrid; but now they know that the Will was unchanged except for the insurance policy to the Clinic.\u00a0 All the other rumors were just so much nonsense. And separately, he had already signed contracts for doing a land survey, buying the land, doing the excavation, and with the architect and engineering firms plus, of course, the general contractor. The kids didn\u2019t know that the contracts were executed, but they did think they\u2019d all be richer if he died before he could execute the documents. \u00a0 How long will it take for them to get their money?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPierre will be eighteen before probate is concluded and then it\u2019s still up to Paige.\u00a0 Probate,\u201d Ellis explained in layman\u2019s terms, \u201cis just the period where all the bills incurred by the deceased come in and get paid.\u00a0 Spencer spent time in Europe and Japan.\u00a0 If he ran up any debts in these places, they have to be paid.\u00a0 Taxes, too, take time.\u00a0 Throwing Ingrid into the mix didn\u2019t help. Now they fear she squirreled away a huge chunk of their cash in some Swiss bank account where they will never get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all had to be worried about his appointments with his attorney. And not only that,\u201d he added, \u201cbut then Gregor accused Hines of stealing something from him.\u00a0 They had a terrible row Mrs. Eglington told me. Hines stuck around because he wanted a good reference from Jules and, I suppose, Paige. We need to find out what the argument was about.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, we\u2019ve added nothing to your defense.\u201d\u00a0 Emphatically, he said, \u201cYour solution to the puzzle makes it seem like a weird kind of suicide note.\u00a0 I got stuck with the word \u2018bereft\u2019 – bereavement.\u00a0 It\u2019s a suicide note, all right. Think about it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been! This puzzle may have been intended for the Japanese guy he was teaching English to. The reason that the envelope had no address was probably that he photocopied his friend\u2019s address which had been written in Kanji.\u00a0 He would have taped the address to the envelope. He said he had been fooling around with some new ways to write a puzzle to teach this guy colloquial English.\u00a0 If you wanted to teach someone the different ways we say something…\u00a0 you could direct him to a thesaurus – which is no puzzle or game of any kind, or you could make the puzzle a learning exercise by fitting the words into the white squares.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always gave the puzzle\u2019s theme,\u201d Nola said, \u201cso his line on the back flap makes sense. \u201cNothing… Nothing left at all.\u2019\u00a0 It\u2019s the theme of the puzzle… and a suicide note.\u00a0 Spence had hit bottom.\u00a0 The kids were grown and all he had to look forward to was a life with Paige and those greedy kids. He found love and purpose with Ingrid, and that was worth an investment.\u00a0 But he lost her and, therefore, the purpose of the investment.\u00a0 He did feel as though he had nothing left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis immediately called Dave Rowan and explained the solution to one puzzling part of Spencer\u2019s death.\u00a0 Rowan was impressed. \u201cIn his desk we found a bunch of small papers that had identical Japanese writing on them. An address in Akita. Could be this guy\u2019s address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis knew that Rowan would contact the man in Japan to verify the puzzle game.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s hope he can be located.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still proves nothing,\u201d Rowan said, \u201cno pun intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Evil to him who evil thinks” is, considering the Lex Talons, the guiding motto of the seeker of enlightenment. In Part 6 of The Crossword Puzzle, A Touch of Jail, Ming Zhen Shakya reveals Nola\u2019s enduring principle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21],"tags":[23,41],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-free-e-books","tag-tales-from-the-sangha","tag-the-crossword-puzzle"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}