100 Sneaky Little Sleuth Stories (1997) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Murder at the Crosswords

Leonard Finley Hilts

John Minor sat across the desk from his brother and glowered at him. “Ralph!” he snapped finally. “Stop that infernal nonsense and listen to me. I came here to talk business.”

Ralph looked up from the huge crossword puzzle in front of him. He was aware of his brother’s presence, but almost immediately after greeting him, he had gone back to the mysteries of the empty squares and forgotten his visitor.

“Now, John,” he replied in his small, petulant voice, “you know very well that I’ve retired from the business. The day I left the office I told you that I would never worry about another business matter as long as I lived.”

Ralph was a small man with wispy white hair and a baby-pink complexion. Behind the enormous oak desk of his library he looked like a midget. The dictionaries and thesauri stacked on either side of him added the effect of framing his face, so that he looked like a midget peering over a window sill. His usually vacant eyes were clouded with resentment.

John snorted. “That’s just it! He had lighted a cigar and now he pointed it accusingly at his brother. “You sit there all day long and work those damn crossword puzzles and collect your share of the profits from the business. I work like the very devil and you get half of what I make. It’s like stealing half of a man’s sweat.”

John Minor looked fifteen years younger than his brother, although there was only five years’ difference in their ages. He wasn’t tall, but thanks to the daily ministrations of a masseuse and a workout at his club before supper every night, his body was firm and muscular. His athletic carriage gave him the appearance of being inches taller than his brother.

Ralph’s eyes opened a little wider at his brother’s outburst, then he shrugged his shoulders. His eyes strayed back to the puzzle, and lines of annoyance creased his forehead. Together with the legend at the bottom the puzzle covered a sheet the size of a newspaper page, and with such a puzzle in front of him, Ralph hated to be bothered.

“You were satisfied the day I retired,” he told John. “You signed the agreement.” His pencil was poised over an empty square. Already his eyes were sinking back into their vacuous state and a preoccupied haze was settling about him.

“That was five years ago,” John reminded him acidly. “The profits aren’t so large now and the work’s twice as hard. There isn’t room for two of us to share the profits when I’m doing all the work.”

He paused to see the effect of his statement on Ralph. It was negligible because Ralph was industriously filling in a line of squares with a very long word. Pleased that he was able to fill in such a word without dictionary aid, Ralph allowed the ghost of a smile to play at the corners of his thin mouth.

John brought his hand down on the desk with a resounding whack.

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