The Puzzle Lady vs. the Sudoku Lady by Parnell Hall Page B

client is extremely sorry to make trouble. In her country, the police do not object to doing their job.”

    Harper opened his mouth, closed it again, and snorted, not unlike, Cora noted, a fire-breathing dragon.
    â€œHang on, Chief. I got this one.” Cora cocked her head at Minami. “Say we do the test and it’s human blood. You say that proves Mrs. Fielding was in the freezer chest. But is that more likely than that it’s blood from where Jason cut himself carving up a deer?”
    Minami smiled. “A DNA test—”
    â€œNow you want a DNA test?” Harper was fit to be tied.
    Cora put up her hand. “No one’s testing anything. We’re talking hypothetically here. Say it’s human blood. Hypothetically. It’s hypothetical human blood. Say it’s the wife’s blood. Say it proves the wife didn’t just happen to bleed in the freezer; she was actually in the freezer. You claim that was done to alter the time of death?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œWhich would be invaluable because the husband was in jail, giving him a perfect alibi. That’s all well and good.” Cora shrugged. “One small problem. Putting the body in the freezer chest lowers the body temperature. It makes the time of death appear earlier than it actually was. If Jason killed his wife, put the body in the freezer for an hour, then set the stage and got arrested, it wouldn’t make it appear the crime happened while he was in jail. It would make it appear the crime happened well before he was in jail. It would, in fact, make his alibi worthless. To make it appear she was killed while he was in jail, he’d have to find a way to raise her body temperature.”
    Harper frowned. “That’s right.” He smiled. “Hey, that’s right. Altering the time of death couldn’t possibly help him.”
    â€œThe only way it would work,” Cora said, “was if he got out
of jail, went home, killed his wife, stuck her in the freezer for an hour, pulled her out, and pretended to discover the body. The lower body temperature would make it seem like she was killed while he was still in jail. But that didn’t happen here. The guy was still in jail when the body was found. Isn’t that right?”
    â€œYes, it is.” Harper raised his voice. “Dan!”
    The young officer stuck his head in the door. “Chief?”
    â€œJason never went home, did he? He was in jail from the time he was arrested in the bar until we told him his wife was dead?”
    â€œYeah, why?”
    â€œJust double-checking. Thanks, Dan.”
    Finley went out, closed the door.
    â€œSo,” Harper said, “that should put an end to that.”
    Michiko yawned sullenly. “Can we go now?”
    Minami’s nose was in the air. “Not at all. Miss Felton has shown how it could not work in one particular way. That does not mean it could not work in another way.”
    Harper groaned. “Oh, come on.”
    â€œWhat other way?” Cora said.
    â€œMrs. Fielding has a lover. He is married. He wishes to break off the affair. Mrs. Fielding will not let him. She threatens to tell his wife if he does not stay with her. He cannot have that. What is he to do? He is like the man in the movie. The American movie. Where the man has an affair with the woman and she will not let him go because she is not right in the head.”
    â€œMichael Douglas and Glenn Close. Fatal Attraction ,” Michiko prompted impatiently.
    â€œYes, it is like Fatal Attraction . Mrs. Fielding will not let go of this man. But it is not a movie. He is not the hero, the star, the good man in the movie. He is a bad man. If the woman will not
let him free, he will free himself of her. What does he do? He sees the husband drinking in a bar. The husband is drunk, gets into a fight. Perhaps he even helps to start the fight. The husband is arrested. The lover makes sure the husband is in