Fatal Deduction by Gayle Roper Read Free Book Online Page A

could stop it. Even if the paper hadn’t been on a dead man, that quick inability to school her features would have told me it was somehow significant, because Tori was a master at controlling herself, her technique perfected when Dad and Pop got into so much trouble.
    I opened the paper and laid it on the table. A free-form crossword puzzle with circles around certain spaces stared up at us.

ACROSS
DOWN
1 competent
1 from the heart
3 truth
2 all
6 rent
4 shirt or time
7 strange
5 affirmative
9 wild waves or men
8 cause to happen
11 red stone
10 hand and shot
12 — one’s throat
13 intimidation
14 avain home
15 written words
16 half a laugh
18 … one’s heels
17 escape
19 cruising
21 Dutch kindnesses
20 precious mineral
23 aware
22 practice theft
    Tori glanced at her
Times
booklet, open on its spiral binding to the current project.
    “No comparison, is there?” She sneered at the paper on the table.
    I read clue one. “Competent.” I checked the puzzle. Four letters across. “Able.” I wrote it in. “One-down: from the heart.” I frowned. There was a reason I did Sudoku instead of crosswords.
    Tori reached for the puzzle. “Don’t bother, Lib. I’ll do it later.”
    I firmed my hold on the paper. “We’ll do it now, Tori. Before Chloe comes down and learns something uncool about her favorite aunt.”
    “Her only aunt.” Tori tried for the paper again.
    “Careful.” My voice was hard. “You’ll tear it.”
    Tori narrowed her eyes. “I believe this was addressed to me. It’s my private concern.”
    I shook my head. “Not when I find both it and the dead body it’s resting on. We’re doing it together and now.”
    “When did you become so stubborn?”
    Obviously stubbornness was not a good character trait, at least in me. “About five o’clock this morning.” I held tight to the paper. “It’s amazing what tripping over a dead man does to you.”
    “I’m not doing it.” Tori flicked a finger over the puzzle.
    “Yes, you are. I kept this puzzle from the police, which is probably very illegal and could get me in a lot of trouble. But you’re my sister and deserve a chance to explain all this to me.”
    “There’s nothing to explain.”
    “And even if there was, you wouldn’t tell me, right?”
    She just looked at me. I clearly did not have a corner on the stubbornness market.
    I leaned forward, invading her space. “If you don’t cooperatehere, I will call Detective Holloran.” I kept my voice even, but I hoped she heard the iron intent behind it.
    Tori leaned back, and her face would have been funny under other circumstances, her mouth and eyes wide in disbelief. “Are you threatening me?”
    I thought for about a second. “Yes, I believe I am.”
    She glared at me.
    “I’m also trying to protect you, so let’s get to work here.”
    It took Tori less than five minutes to do the puzzle, with me looking on. I never eased my grip on the paper the whole time she worked.
    I stared at the circled letters when she was finished. “‘Areyounext.’ Are you next?” I blinked. “That sounds like a threat.”
    “Don’t be foolish.” Tori tried to appear unruffled as she lounged back in her chair.
    “Tori, this puzzle with your name on it was found on a dead man. Is someone out to kill you too? Is that what this message means?”
    I’d spent a good part of my growing-up years waiting for Dad or Pop to get bumped off by some druggie in a raid or at a simple car stop, and my adult years waiting for some inmate to take their resentment of law enforcement out on either or both of them in prison. I’d never thought I would fear the same thing for my sister.
    “Get a grip, Libby.” She stood.
    I grabbed her hand. “Talk to me, Tori.”
    She pulled her hand free. “My life is none of your business.”
    “Yes, it is. If your poor choices endanger my daughter or me in any way, it’s my business big-time.”
    The front doorbell rang, and Tori knew reprieve when she heard it. She all