The Devil's Puzzle

Table of Contents

 

 

 

A PLUME BOOK

THE DEVIL’S PUZZLE

CLARE O’DONOHUE is a freelance television writer/producer. She has worked worldwide on a variety of shows for the Food Network, the History Channel, and Court TV, among others. An avid quilter, she was also a producer for HGTV’s
Simply Quilts
.

ALSO BY CLARE O’DONOHUE

SOMEDAY QUILTS MYSTERIES

 

KATE CONWAY MYSTERIES

PLUME

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

 

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

First Printing, October 2011

Copyright © Clare O’Donohue, 2011
All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

O’Donohue, Clare.

The devil’s puzzle / Clare O’Donohue.
p. cm.—(A Someday Quilts mystery)

ISBN : 978-1-101-55259-9

PS3615.D665D48 2011
813’.6—dc22

2011004474

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
only started writing this series in the fall of 2006 and now I’m publishing the fourth volume. Hard to believe. It’s all thanks to many people who have helped make this possible: my agent, Sharon Bowers of The Miller Agency, who has taken every step with me; my editor, Becky Cole, who is my partner in getting each story exactly where it was meant to be; and publicity manager Mary Pomponio (my hero), who works incredibly hard getting the word out about each book. Also, to the men and women in sales and marketing, Nadia Kashper, and everyone at Plume who put this together, thanks, once again, for all the hard work. To those women who loaned their names to characters in
The Devil’s Puzzle
: Molly O’Brien, Mary “Glee” Shipman, Dru Ann Love, Bunny Giordano, Kathryn Brigham, and Glad Warren, thank you. The characters are nothing like the people they are named after, but I do appreciate your letting me escape the hardest part of writing a novel: coming up with great names. To Dr. Brian Peterson, chief medical examiner for Milwaukee County, thank you, as always, for being a man with all the answers. To Julie Silber, who helped me with the sections on quilting history, thank you so much for your patience, expert knowledge, and quick responses. If there are errors in anything, don’t blame Brian or Julie, blame me. I try, but don’t always succeed, in getting things exactly right. Thanks to Margaret Smith, for all the photographs as well as the Sunday chats (you too, Brian). To my family, V, Kevin, and my many friends, your support has meant the world to me. And to the wonderful readers of both the Someday Quilts Mysteries and the Kate Conway Mysteries, thank you. Without you, I’d just be talking to myself (more than I already do).

CHAPTER 1

I
n any room full of people there are saints and sinners. There are those who would get out of bed at three in the morning to help a neighbor with a stalled car, and those who get out of bed at three in the morning, kiss a secret lover, and head home to their families with excuses about stalled cars. There are those who would die to save the life of a stranger, and those who would betray a loved one on a whim.

I looked around this room of esteemed citizens and wondered who fit into the first category and who fit into the second. They all seemed innocent enough, gathered together in the Archers Rest library, shifting on metal folding chairs, checking their watches and iPhones. Every one of them could easily be in the first group, the group of do-gooders. Perhaps they were here to help their neighbors, to help the town. But what if there was more to it? What if some people were harboring secret motivations for wanting to be in this room on this day? Maybe using this meeting as an alibi. Or a chance to spy on a neighbor.

Or maybe I was just bored.

I glanced toward the door. If I planned it just right I might be able to make my escape without too much trouble. There were two dozen people in the library’s reading room. They wouldn’t be the problem. It was the woman sitting next to me. Every time I moved in my chair or even looked toward the door, she glared at me. But she didn’t understand. I
had
to get out of there.