A Puzzle to Be Named Later--A Puzzle Lady Mystery by Parnell Hall

Author:Parnell Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter

34

Chief Harper screeched his car to a stop at the side of the road and he and Cora leapt out.

The rear of Matt Greystone’s car protruded from a ditch. Matt’s agent, Lenny Schick, stood talking to Judy Douglas Knauer, whose blue Nissan was pulled up alongside.

“Where’s Matt?” Cora demanded.

“He’s home,” Lenny said.

“You sent him home?” Chief Harper said.

“I left him home. The party had to be a strain. No reason to be up and about.”

“He drove his car into a ditch,” Harper said.

“Don’t be silly. I drove his car into a ditch. Not my fault, really. I put on the brakes and nothing happened.”

“The brakes failed?”

“It certainly looks like it. Good thing it was me driving and not Matt. He couldn’t have handled it with one arm. I could barely do it with two. I was okay until it picked up speed on the grade. I’d have made it, but the car knocked me sideways on the S-turn. By the time I straightened up I was in the ditch.”

“You’re saying you drove his car?”

“Sure. I took his car to town because it was blocking mine. Everything seemed fine until I hit the downgrade. I stepped on the brake and the pedal went right to the floor.”

“You’re not hurt?”

“I’m not. How do you like that? The deepest pockets in the world and I can’t even sue.” He put up his hand. “Don’t call me on that. I may have some back injury that pops up later.”

Cora pulled Judy aside. “You saw the accident?”

“I phoned it in.”

“But you saw it happen?”

“I came along right after. The car was off the road. He was just climbing out of the ditch. I called the station, spoke to Dan Finley. You guys sure got here fast.”

“So you didn’t actually see the car go off the road?”

“No.”

“Did you hear the crash?”

“No, but what’s to hear? It’s not like it smashed into anything. It just got stuck in a ditch.”

“Headfirst.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s that bad. The front isn’t caved in or anything. And Lenny got out the front door. He didn’t have to kick a window open.”

Chief Harper came over. “What are you doing?”

“Talking to Judy. She’s the one who called it in.”

“What’s she been asking you?”

“If I saw the car go off the road. Which I didn’t. It must have been just before I got there. As soon as I saw it, I pulled off the road and called it in.”

“That’s what I was telling her, Chief. If only more people were civic minded.”

Chief Harper pulled Cora away. “What’s your angle?”

“Angle?”

“You come to a car crash, you don’t want to look at the car, you don’t want to talk to the driver, you’re interested in the person who called it in.”

“Judy’s a bridge partner.”

“I’m going to make every effort to cooperate with Becky in terms of her representing her client, as long as cooperation is a two-way street. What are you getting at?”

“It’s mighty convenient Matt’s agent is the one driving the car when it went off the road.

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