Death by Sudoku (23 page)

So, Liza had the envelope with her as she and Ava arrived at County Hospital. “My people tell me that Jenny is in good condition,” Ava reported. “They just have her under observation after being stuck out in the open for so long.”

She grinned. “With luck, I may even get a quick interview with her.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Liza warned. As they came inside, she was a little surprised to see two doctors in surgical scrubs sitting in the waiting area. Then she looked past the costumes to the men wearing them as they rose and came toward her.

“What are you two doing in that getup?” she demanded of Michael and Kevin.

“They gave us these after they brought us to the hospital,” Kevin replied. “Our clothes were kind of soaked.”

Michael nodded. “See, I brought our boat past this ruined place—”

“Bayocean,” Kevin put in.

Liza nodded in recognition.

“Then I cut the engine and we slipped into the water, swimming to the tip of this point, or sand spit, whatever you people call them up here.”

“The real doctors wanted to check us out after taking a dip in the Pacific at this time of year,” Kevin said.

“I understand they have this thing in Brooklyn called the Polar Bear Club.” Michael gave a very convincing shiver. “Maybe we can start a local affiliate.”

Kevin took up the story. “Anyway, we came crawling up on the ruins—what’s left of the old hotel cellar.”

“Getting sand in places I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you about anymore,” Michael added.

“While we were doing that, a car came from the landward end,” Kevin went on. “This Captain guy gets out—let me tell you, he didn’t look like any captain I ever saw.”

Michael nodded. “When they do the movie version, they should look at Jason Alexander for the part.”

“We had a ringside seat hearing this guy admit to conspiracy to murder,” Kevin picked up the story again. “Then it got really ugly. The Captain pulled a gun.”

“He was going to shoot Jenny Robbins, but Calvin stopped him,” Michael said. “Damnedest thing I ever saw, him charging the guy’s gun. And even though he was fatally shot, he still managed to deck the other guy.”

“And when he fell, he pinned the Captain’s gun hand,” Kevin finished. “The guy was fighting deadweight trying to get it loose when we nailed him.”

He shook his head. “Cal’s life took a left turn pretty early, and he made a lot of bad choices. But the last thing he did—he was a hero.”

“He saved the girl,” Michael said, “and he clocked the bad guy. Maybe that was the best way he could go.” He shook his way out of that somber mood, going for practical instead. “Visiting hours are over, but I understand Jenny was asking for you. Just talk to the people at reception.”

The hospital staff greeted Liza warmly. Ava got a less friendly reaction. She was recognized as a newspaper person, and it was all Liza could do to keep her from being exiled to the three-ring media circus going on in the parking lot.

“So much for the idea of an interview,” Ava muttered as she went back to join Kevin and Michael.

Frankly, Liza didn’t much care. The only news she was interested in right now was about Jenny’s condition.

“We’re treating it as a case of exposure,” the nurse leading Liza to Jenny’s room explained. “Hypothermia—and don’t be surprised at the oxygen mask. There’s a possibility of pneumonia.”

Liza was glad she’d gotten the warning before she stepped into the room. What was it about those little plastic masks that made people look even worse than they really were?

Jenny was virtually cocooned in those white cotton thermal blankets that hospitals use. She’d been dozing as they came in, but as soon as the nurse finished taking her vital signs, Jenny pulled off the oxygen mask and smiled at Liza.

“They told me I was exhausted when I got in here, then it seems like they’ve been shaking me awake about every ten minutes, taking my blood pressure and the rest.” Jenny did look tired, with prominent rings under her eyes. She was also thinner after her ordeal. And her face was . . . different. Suffering (or maybe enforced maturity?) had refined her features. When Liza first met Jenny Robbins, she’d been introduced to a beautiful girl. Now, however, Jenny had become a striking woman.

She took Liza’s hand. “I wanted to thank you for rescuing me.”

“Kevin and Michael did that,” Liza said, feeling suddenly—oddly—shy. “They’re the ones who figured out where you were and went there.”

“But they wouldn’t have without you to get them started.” Jenny’s hand tightened. “I didn’t know what was going to happen out there. By rights, I should have been terrified all the time, but I wasn’t when the big guy—Calvin?—was with me. He was gentle and, I think, sorry for me. And when that man with the gun came—”

She shuddered, and not from hypothermia. “He would have killed me like squashing a bug.”

“It’s over now,” Liza said, soothing her free hand over Jenny’s clutching fingers. “Just a bad memory.”

Jenny nodded. “At least it’s getting there. They told me the bad news about Uncle D. I sort of expected it, that something bad must have happened, when I came back to the house and found those two guys running out.”

She looked up at Liza, her red-rimmed eyes suddenly wide. “He told me things had gone very well with you, and I wanted to do something to celebrate. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but Uncle D was fanatically careful about his weight. He said I’d have to learn about what a widening experience being on camera could be. Anyway, he never kept ice cream in the house—too much of a temptation, he said. So I went down to town and got a pint of his favorite—mine, too—fudge ripple.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and for a moment she was just a girl again. “I’d just parked my car in front of the house when the door flew open and two men came running out. I was afraid of the bald one. He kept yelling because I’d seen their faces and waving this little gun. But the big guy told him to shut up—they’d just have to take me along.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. “The rest—well, I guess you know. I heard that you caught the bald guy setting a bomb down in L.A.”

“And now it’s finished. I just thank God you came out of it all right,” Liza told Jenny. “If there’s anything you need—”

“Funny you should mention that,” Jenny’s lips quirked into some semblance of a grin. “There’s something I need to talk about with you before they come in and throw you out. I don’t have a phone in here, but from what the nurses are saying, the switchboard people are getting pretty tired of fielding phone calls.” She looked up at Liza. “Most of them seem to be people offering me film deals.”

Liza drew out the bulky envelope from the pocket of her suit jacket. “I thought my partner was crazy when she gave me this. But it looks as though I underestimated her.” She spread it out, along with a pen.

They had time for some quick discussion before the nurse returned. When Liza left the room, she had a signed contract.

Only when she was out in the corridor did Liza recall what Michelle had said when this all started, when she’d contacted her partner after dinner at Derrick’s. Signing that contract didn’t just tie up Jenny Robbins. She was going to be
Liza’s
responsibility.

I
really
underestimated Michelle
, Liza thought with a sigh.
Two months in the country, and I’ve completely lost my edge. Well, I’ll have to get it back, and quick. From the sound of things, handling publicity for Jenny will be a full-time job for the near future. And what about my sudoku gig on the paper?

She shook her head as she headed for the lobby. So much for simplifying her life.

Then, ahead, she spotted the two figures in green scrubs talking with Ava—Kevin, his sandy hair cut to almost military shortness, Michael with his tousled dark curls. One an avid outdoorsman, the other the perfect indoor sudoku partner—both of them darned attractive, Liza had to admit. Each of them had been out of her life, but as they turned to her, both were obviously showing interest now.

Another complication.

Liza hid a grin, refusing to worry about it. If this adventure had proved anything, it had shown that she could solve puzzles.
Now all I have to do is carry that from paper into real life . . .

She gave up the struggle and smiled like a kid on the last day of school, completely happy for the first time since this whole adventure had begun.

Sudo-cues

Written by Oregon’s own leading sudoku columnist, Liza K

 
 
 
It’s been a while since we’ve gone beyond the basic techniques needed to solve sudokus. And what better way to see them in action than to solve some puzzles by Will Singleton? These are puzzles the redoubtable Mr. S. unleashed on the contestants at the Southern California Invitational Sudoku Tournament. Puzzle one was one of five designed for entry-level contestants, with twenty-five winners moving on to the more difficult second puzzle to determine the tournament champion. (Yours truly came in second place, ahem.)

Solving a puzzle on the level of puzzle one will call for basic techniques. A puzzle on the level of puzzle two is considerably harder—pretty much a top-of-the-line newspaper sudoku—and requires more sophisticated techniques before it yields a solution.

But I want you, gentle readers, to be able to do both.

So, here we go, technique by technique, from easiest to most difficult. (For reasons that will become clear as we go on, I refuse to use the word “hardest” when talking about sudoku techniques.)

No, despite the suggestive name, this isn’t the answer to the question, “Why can’t I find Mr./Ms. Right?” A hidden single is the proper value for a space that “hides” among several candidates if you were to list the possibilities—but it stands out easily when you change your focus. I’ve always called it “scanning for a triple play,” and I think it’s better demonstrated than discussed.

We know that, running vertically or horizontally, each group of boxes—the nine-space subgrids in a sudoku puzzle—must house three examples of a given value. (Three 1s, three 3s, and so on.) A given number in a box prohibits any more appearances by that number in that box. It also prohibits the appearance of the number in a row or column. With that thought in mind, focus your attention on the space marked with a question mark in this puzzle.

From the “list the candidates” viewpoint, there are five possible values for this space—1, 4, 7, 8, and 9. Shift the viewpoint, however, and you can cut away this clutter. Check vertically, and you’ll see the two boxes above each have a 1. What about finding a 1 in the bottom left box?

The 1s in the first and third columns of the puzzle “claim” two columns that make up the box, as shown by the shading. That means that four of the available six spaces can’t take a 1, as shown by the “prohibited” symbols.

What about the remaining two spaces? The box next door also contains a 1, which blocks that number’s appearance on any of the spaces in the row it occupies. See the new shading and additional “prohibited” sign on the next page. That means only one space can take a 1—the one now marked with crosshairs.

This technique is an excellent starting gambit as you
pick up a sudoku. If it works, you stand to fill in several spaces. If it doesn’t (for instance in puzzle two), you know you’re in for a tougher puzzle.