CHAPTER 8
On Wednesday morning, Belle stood in a sunny window of the converted rear porch that served as her home office. Her eyes drifted across the small patch of greenery that composed her garden. Broken twigs and branches—the detritus of Monday night’s storm—made the area look as though giants had been playing pick-up sticks and become bored with the game. Sparrows hopped exuberantly among the wreckage, discovering tasty new sources of sustenance, but Belle shuddered as if chilled. The sunlight, the lingering green of the grass, the gilding of the autumnal leaves did nothing to dispel an ominous sense of doom.
Her brow furrowed and her wide eyes narrowed. She’d felt the same palpable fear ever since her conversation with Rosco the evening before. Something was amiss, and it wasn’t simply poor nautical “procedure,” or an accident that could have befallen any unlucky sailor. Without intending to, her mind conjured a litany of maritime disasters: shipwrecks, collisions, winter gales, freak waves. Why didn’t Genie and Jamaica use that cell phone? her brain demanded. Where could the inflatable tender have gone? Why disengage the locator beacon?
Belle sighed aloud and returned to her desk—a hodgepodge of graph paper, open dictionaries, empty coffee mugs, and one conspicuously denuded platter upon which three deviled eggs had recently rested. The plate had a crossword design—as did the mugs, and a seriously tilting lamp shade. In fact, the entire room was a symphony—perhaps, a cacophony—of black and white: curtain fabric with bold, black letters on a white ground, two deck chairs in white-and-black canvas, a wood floor painted to resemble a crossword grid. Belle had lived with this unusual decor so long, she assumed it was normal. Besides, as she liked to boast, her bathroom was worse; there, the cryptics theme had run seriously amok: black-and-white ceramic tiles running up, down, and across.
Belle stared at the empty plate, muttered a quiet, “Darn. I don’t remember finishing them,” then opened her “bible,” the Oxford English Dictionary, her much-thumbed O.E.D. She’d been attempting to create a crossword on a garden theme—thus her stroll to the window—but her fascination with botany rivaled her love of cooking. If it was green and survived without human care, a plant was her friend. If it required nurturing, it would need another home.
Suddenly she glanced up. She had a horrible sense of being watched by sinister eyes. She looked through the windows. No one. Captain’s Walk with its row of tidy homes and quaint, secluded gardens was as silent and peaceable as ever. She turned toward the door leading into the near-naked living room. Nothing. No sound. No stir of air. Belle’s eyes spun over the shelves of research books: the Larousse, Harrap’s Italian Dictionary, Roget’s International Thesaurus, the atlas, her treasured Encyclopaedia Britannica—the famous eleventh edition. The books stared dumbly back.
She returned to her crossword, a work combining horticulture and women’s names. Whither Flora? was the puzzle’s name. Black-eyed SUSAN, she scribbled on a pad, LADY’S slipper, VENUS flytrap, Queen ANNE’S lace, Christmas ROSE. Belle’s mind began making double and triple connections, then her head jerked up again. She was certain someone was prowling around outside.
“Okay,” she announced. “Enough is enough!”
She marched through the living room and yanked open the front door, intending to storm outside and berate this unseen and unnerving presence. But a piece of paper stopped her in her tracks. Tucked under a corner of the doormat was a hand-drawn crossword puzzle. Still standing in the entry, Belle quickly scanned several of the clues: Hunter … Call to Aladdin’s lamp? … “Evil in the Deep” …
ORION, she silently ticked off, GENIE … She was in her office with her trusty red Bic pen in hand before she knew it.
Across
1. Mississipp——
6. “Show——”
10. “Star——”
14. Hunter
15. Tale Starter
16. Jai——
17. “… Lady Disdain,——” Shak.
20. Trip starter?
21. Under, to Burns
22. 1-Across P.O. addresses
26. Govt. lender
29. JFK arrival
30. Coral island
31. Belief
32. Du Maurier novel
34. Scrap
37. “Men were——,” Shak.
39. Annoy
40. Call to Aladdin’s lamp?
42. Hemp refuse
43. Tatum or Ryan
44. Cranberry patch
47. Directional suffixes
48. “… thou art the thing——,” Shak.
49. “The——Suspects”
51. GA neighbor
52. “Bait the hook well,——,” Shak., var.
60. This is only a——
61. Two-masted vessel
62. Passes bad paper
63. Lip
64. Sink or——
65. “Deadly Blessing” actress Sharon
Down
1. Edmond O’Brien classic
2. “To—is human …”
3. Falsehood
4. Type of boy?
5. Fish story, e.g.
6. “Evil in the Deep” actor Stephen
7. Single
8. 1/5 of Henry V
9. ATT part
10. Short——radio
11. Name game?
12. Overacts?
13. Out of——, out of mind
18. Ship prefix
19. Naut. engine type
22. Mil. rank
23. Rocket parts, Ital.
24. Speed of light discoverer
25. Antiaircraft fire, var.
26. Pals
27. Matisse & others
28. Eye part, var.
31. Grotto
33. Stogie
34. Oasts
35. ——Adorée
36. 57-Down venue
38. Shrink conversations?
41. Sprite
42. Port lead-in
44. Rams
45. Milo——
46. ——who?
48. Sick
50. Sterns
51. 1-Down, e.g.
53. Part of CBS
54. Gee &——
55. It ended at 11 A.M. on 11/11
56. ——part; walk-on
57. Lance——
58. “——Little Indians”
59. Wind dir.
To download a PDF of this puzzle, please visit openroadmedia.com/nero-blanc-crosswords