“L, you do know that I’m on a leave of absence?”
“Yes. That’s why I asked you for help. With this case, I need a skilled individual who can work on their own.”
“So I imagine you also know why I’m on a leave of absence?” “No,” he said, to Misora’s surprise. “I don’t know that.”
“You didn’t check?”
“I wasn’t interested. You are skilled, and were currently available, and that was all that mattered— unless there was something I should know about? In that case, I could find out in under a minute.” “No.” she said, grimacing.
She had felt like the entire world knew about her blunder, but not even the world’s greatest detective knew. And he had described Misora’s leave of absence/suspension as making her “available.” She had never thought to wonder, but it seemed L did have a sense of humor.
“Okay, L, if we’re going to stop the fourth murder, we should begin. What should I do first?” “What can you do?”
“I can do what I can do,” Misora said. “I know I keep asking, but if I’m going to look over the scene again.., searching for anything he left behind besides the Wara Ningyo. . .what, specifically, am I looking for?”
“Any kind of message.” “Message?”
“Yes. This was not listed in the data I gave you, but nine days before July 3 1st, before the first murder, on July 22nd, the LAPD received a letter.”
“A letter?”
Where was this going? The LAPD...? “Connected to the case?”
“At the moment, none of the detectives involved have noticed a connection. I don’t know for certain if there actually is one, but I think there is.”
“What percent?” “Eighty percent.” Instant response.
“The sender is unknown—a forwarding system was used, and there’s no way to tell where it was sent from. Inside the envelope was a single piece of paper with a crossword puzzle written on it.”
“A crossword puzzle? Hunh…”
“Don’t be dismissive. It was a very difficult puzzle, and no one could solve it. Of course, we could also take that to mean no one applied themselves to it seriously, but it seems reasonable to hypothesize that several policemen working together were unable to solve the puzzle.’’
I see. So?”
“Eventually they decided the puzzle was just a prank, and it was thrown away. ..but my information- gathering network acquired a copy through other channels yesterday.”
“Yesterday…”
So that was why it wasn’t in the file. Even as Misora was preparing to start her investigation, L had been pursuing the matter from different angle.
“I solved it,” L said.
Apparently that hypothesis about the difficulty of the puzzle had a preemptive form of bragging. He must get frowned at a lot, Misora thought. Not that she was one to talk.
“If I’m not mistaken, then the answer to that puzzle is where you are—The address of the first murder.” “221 Insist St., Hollywood
“Exactly. He told them he was going to commit these murders. But since the puzzle was so difficult that no one could solve it, it did not realistically stand a chance of serving that purpose...”
“Has the LAPD received any other letters like that? Indicating the address for the second or third murders?”
“No. I checked the entire state of California
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