STOP A MURDER - WHERE (Mystery Puzzle Book 2) Read online

  STOP A MURDER

  WHERE

  J.A. KONRATH

  CONTENTS

  Stop a Murder – Where

  Important Message

  Preface by Joe Konrath

  Note from Joe

  Where: Puzzle #13

  Where: Puzzle #14

  Where: Puzzle #15

  Where: Puzzle #16

  Where: Puzzle #17

  Where: Puzzle #18

  Where: Puzzle #19

  Where: Puzzle #20

  Where: Puzzle #21

  Where: Puzzle #22

  Where: Puzzle #23

  Where: Puzzle #24

  Acknowledgments

  Joe Konrath’s Complete Bibliography

  Other recommended titles

  Sign up for the J.A. Konrath newsletter

  STOP A MURDER – WHERE

  This is unlike any mystery or thriller book you’ve ever read before. You play the sleuth, and try to follow the clues and solve the puzzles to prevent a murder from happening.

  In this five-book series, you’ll be tasked with decoding the mind and motivations of a nefarious killer who is plotting to commit an unspeakable crime.

  Each book contains an epistolary collection of emails, texts, and letters, sent to bestselling author J.A. Konrath, by a serial killer. This psychopath is leaving detailed, cryptic hints about who will be murdered, why, when, where, and how.

  Some of the hints are easy to figure out. Others are much more devious.

  Do you like solving mysteries? Do you enjoy puzzles or escape-the-room games? Are you good at spotting clues?

  Only you can stop a murder.

  Are you smart enough?

  Are you brave enough?

  Let the games begin…

  #1 STOP A MURDER – HOW: Puzzles 1–12

  #2 STOP A MURDER – WHERE: Puzzles 13–24

  #3 STOP A MURDER – WHY: Puzzles 25–36

  #4 STOP A MURDER – WHO: Puzzles 37–48

  #5 STOP A MURDER – WHEN: Puzzles 49–60

  IMPORTANT MESSAGE

  The creators of this series strive to blur the lines between reality and fantasy, but they assure you that this is 100% fiction.

  Nothing in this narrative should be taken as fact.

  It’s fake, folks. Don’t call the cops.

  PREFACE BY JOE KONRATH

  I get a lot of emails, sometimes from fans of my thriller books, sometimes from other writers seeking advice.

  But this was easily the most intriguing, and disturbing, email I’ve ever received. Here’s how it began:

  From: Unknown Sender

  To: JA Konrath

  Subject: An Introduction

  Dear Mr. Konrath—

  This isn’t fiction.

  This is real.

  I’m going to kill someone. I’m going to let you know how, where, why, who, and when.

  But I’m not going to come right out and tell you.

  I’m going to make you figure it out.

  Are you smart enough?

  Are you brave enough?

  Do you think you can stop me?

  Let’s play.

  Sincerely,

  Unknown Sender

  I never responded to that first email. But Unknown Sender didn’t give up. More emails followed. Each had a puzzle. Each had clues and hints. And each linked to a website, taunting me to figure out HOW, WHERE, WHY, WHO, and WHEN.

  I’ve been able to figure out some of the puzzles, but I haven’t been able to get them all. I’ve also shared these emails with the authorities—the local police and FBI—and they’ve written this off as a prank or joke.

  The more I’ve delved into this, the more I’m convinced it isn’t a prank.

  As the Unknown Sender wrote, this is real.

  So, in order to prevent a murder, I’ve decided to publish these email puzzles, and my responses, as a series of five ebooks, in the hopes that a reader or readers will be able to figure out what I’ve been unable to.

  You’re going to need Internet access. A notepad is also helpful.

  I also encourage you to get together with friends to share questions, theories, and answers.

  Feel free to use the Facebook page I’ve set up, at:

  https://www.facebook.com/KonrathPuzzleSeries

  Help one another. But if you’re going to post puzzle answers, make sure you label them as SPOILER ALERT so you don’t ruin it for other readers.

  Don’t read this as fiction. Don’t read this as a collection of games. Don’t read this as a puzzle book.

  Read this as a crime in progress.

  Together, I hope we can stop it.

  Are you smart enough?

  Are you brave enough?

  Can you help me?

  —Joe Konrath

  NOTE FROM JOE

  This was the thirteenth puzzle email that Unknown Sender sent to me. I compiled the previous twelve in the HOW collection. I encourage you, the reader, to figure these puzzles out on your own. Unknown Sender sometimes puts hints, which are preceded by the words SPOILER ALERT, in our correspondence.

  There are also some hints on the website, www.StopAMurder.com. More on that later, but if you’re reading this on an e-ink ereader, you’re not going to be able to access Unknown Sender’s website within the ebook, or watch the videos that appear when each section is solved. You’re going to have to use a second device (cell phone, computer, tablet) to visit that site to continue the story and validate your guesses.

  The puzzles Unknown Sender has been sending me are a mix of brain teasers, pictures, general knowledge, logic, deduction, and some basic math. You’ll sometimes need to do Internet research to figure them out. Some rely on word tricks or deception, so read carefully, and use hints as needed.

  Unfortunately, I can’t offer any help via my blog or email. If you’re stumped, I encourage you to join forces with other readers to share information, theories, and answers.

  https://www.facebook.com/KonrathPuzzleSeries

  Good luck to you. You’re going to need it.

  We’re both going to need it.

  From: Unknown Sender

  To: JA Konrath

  Subject: Where I’ll Do It–13

  Hi Joe—

  After sending you twelve puzzles in previous emails, you’re acutely aware that I adore games.

  Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to play many when I was a child.

  But when I got older, I made up for lost time. I went to thrift shops and got all the classic board games, like Clue and Aggravation and Stratego and so on.

  I played with my best friend in high school, Nicky. Other kids my age were drinking, smoking weed, having sex. But Nicky and I were just peachy hanging out in his room, competing in a four-hour session of Risk.

  Have you ever played Risk? The goal is to take over the world by killing all of your enemies.

  Anyone that plays with you is an enemy.

  Ever feel that way? That the whole world is against you?

  Probably not. You live a life of privilege. You don’t have to work for a living. You sit on your fat ass and make things up. While the rest of us contend with a 9 to 5 and struggle to try and get the tiniest of breaks, you write your crummy little stories, churning out crap faster than a herd of dairy cows.

  But you’re trying to get me off tangent, aren’t you? Get me off the topic of games, so you can talk more about your stupid books.

  I’m onto your tricks. And I won’t be baited.

  Back to the point.

  I send you puzzles. You solve them. If you solve them all, maybe you can stop a murder.

  Previously, you tried to figure o
ut HOW I’m going to do the deed.

  With these next twelve puzzles, your job is to figure out WHERE the murder will take place.

  Are you ready for this?

  Do you think you can withstand the weight of my genius?

  In memory of dear Nicky, here’s the next puzzle.

  PUZZLE #13

  Add the number of points in SCRABBLE,

  To a deck of Uno cards plus two,

  To the number of hits to sink a sub,

  To the number of weapons in Clue.

  Go to www.stopamurder.com, find the WHERE link, and enter the correct number into the text box under Puzzle #13.

  Simple, right?

  In case you forgot, the password is QWERTY.

  Usually, I’d give you some hints, and warn you with the heading SPOILER ALERT! But this one is so easy, you don’t need any hints.

  Or do you?

  Really?

  You do?

  Okay, here’s a clue:

  SPOILER ALERT!

  You don’t have to add up the point value of every single tile in a Scrabble game. But you do need to pay attention to tile values.

  There’s your hint.

  Aren’t modern times wonderful? No one needs to learn anything. Experience doesn’t matter. The Internet has taken the place of schools, teachers, books, and even human interaction.

  Maybe you’ve never played the games Battleship or Scrabble. But you don’t have to even have to know what they are. You can look them up online and find out everything about them.

  If this were twenty years ago, and I was corresponding with you via the US Mail, the only way for you to figure out this puzzle would be to actually buy the games.

  But the tactile pleasures of board games are quaint in this day and age of virtual reality and MMORPGs and social media apps where you can trade coins with your idiot followers. Why sit down with friends and family and play some ancient dice game that takes up closet space when you can play a computer opponent on your cell phone?

  Am I the only one who thinks things are getting worse?

  Then again, I am sending you emails, and you’re inputting answers on a webpage, so I’m feeding into the technological chasm.

  But still, I long for the old days.

  Nicky and I had a special game that we used to play when no one else was home. We called it “Knife Clues”. It was based on a Kafka story. Do you like Kafka?

  That guy could write.

  Knife Clues was played with a sharp knife, and a bare back. The concept was simple. Nicky would think of a word, then trace the letters across my back with the knife.

  If I didn’t guess it right away, he’d trace a little deeper.

  And deeper…

  And deeper…

  It was a tough game, Joe! I still have the word SILLY scarred into my back, because it took me ten tries to realize the last letter was a Y and not a V.

  Good times.

  The human body is such a wonderful canvas. So much can be done to alter it. Tattoos. Piercings. Branding. Scarification. Dermal implants.

  Do you have any tattoos?

  I have one.

  It says Nicky.

  I put it on my arm. But Daddy saw it, and went insane. He thought it was okay to leave marks on me, but claimed it was a sin if I did it to myself.

  So Daddy took a straight razor, and cut the tattoo off.

  You think getting a tattoo hurts?

  Having it sliced off hurts worse.

  Are you calling me a liar, Joe?

  I wasn’t lying when I told you I have a tattoo.

  I do have a tattoo.

  It just isn’t on my body anymore.

  After Daddy cut it off, I kept it in a keepsake box.

  With all my other little mementos.

  Maybe, if you’re really lucky, I won’t tell you about them.

  Your BFF,

  Unknown Senner

  From: Joe Konrath

  To: Unknown Sender

  US—

  I didn’t ask for you to contact me. I don’t want to solve your puzzles, or hear your stories.

  We aren’t BFFs.

  Any relationship you believe you have with me is a delusion in your diseased mind.

  You think you’re so intelligent, so special.

  You’re not.

  You’re a sad, deranged loner, aged 18 to 45, Caucasian. You live alone, have no close friends (including your made-up buddy, Nicky), are probably a virgin, and have created this fantasy world because living in the real one is too painful.

  You’re not a genius. You’re a loser.

  And your puzzles suck.

  J

  From: Unknown Sender

  To: JA Konrath

  Subject: Where I’ll Do It–14

  Joseph—

  Didn’t I warn you about being mean?

  I’m giving you the opportunity to stop a murder. But if you keep up this negative attitude, I’m going to kill more than one person.

  I have a neighbor who just went on maternity leave. She’s home alone while her husband works. Just her and her newborn baby, Bella.

  She’s a good person. A trusting person. The kind who doesn’t lock her patio door during the day because she likes to feel the breeze come in.

  If you keep acting like a jerk, the breeze won’t be the only thing coming into my neighbor’s house.

  That’s my last warning. Be civil.

  So, now that we’ve gotten that mandatory lecture out of the way, you probably want to know more about me. Like what happened in my past, and why I picked you to send email puzzles to, and how all of this adds up.

  I could spill it all for you right now. But what’s the fun in that?

  You probably notice that you do the same thing in your books.

  Rather than take a big infodump on the page, laying it all out for the reader, you tease it out over the length of the novel.

  I figure that when I’m done sending you emails, plus all the writing I did on the website, it’ll be close to novel-length.

  So I’m just going to dribble facts down your throat. A little backstory. A little modus operandi. A bit of exaggeration for dramatic effect.

  Let me tell you about the time that I made Nicky some cookies and put needles in them.

  I didn’t have any particular reason to do it. Nicky was my best friend. We were together all the time. He helped me through some really dark episodes.

  So why the needles?

  In retrospect, I think I was testing to see how much he’d take before calling our friendship quits.

  But hindsight is 20/20. At the time, I did it because I thought it was funny.

  You’re the one who gave me the idea, Joe.

  In your book, Whiskey Sour. The Halloween candy scene.

  I followed the directions, and pushed six needles into a homemade cookie, then gave it to Nicky and waited for the funny reaction.

  I find it funny when people bleed and scream.

  Maybe it’s a character defect. I prefer to think of it as a whimsical quirk.

  So Nicky takes a big bite—I’m talking half the cookie in his mouth—and I’m waiting for him to cry out, opening his mouth wide to show me the damage, maybe reaching in to tug needles from his gums or tongue.

  But that doesn’t happen. Instead of yelling, Nicky swallows.

  I was really surprised.

  And then I got excited.

  Seeing a needle or two poking out of his lips would have been really funny. But seeing one poke out of his stomach? Or his intestines?

  That would have been epic.

  Even a needle jutting out of his throat, wiggling as he choked, would have been one heck of a sight.

  But what happened in real life was scary. So scary that it haunts me to this day.

  Nicky swallowed—

  —and then ate the other half of the cookie.

  There was no bleeding. No screaming. No choking or tears or threats.

  He ate the whole damn thing, gav
e me a smile, and thanked me.

  Do you know how much that messed with my head?

  How could he have swallowed six needles, without even getting poked once?

  I was so upset, that I made myself a cookie. I put six needles into it, the same way I did for Nicky.

  I ate half.

  And two needles came out of my cheeks.

  The third got stuck under my tongue. Stuck deep, you know? I had to get a pair of pliers to pull it out.

  I never ate the other half of the cookie.

  And I never found out how Nicky ate the whole thing without any problems at all.

  Hey, are you into meteorology?

  How about pop culture?

  How about both?

  See if you can figure this puzzle out.

  PUZZLE #14

  I like the rock band Simply Fuchsia

  I like the movie A Clockwork Gray

  I like the soda Mellow Purple

  The book The Brown Mile is okay

  Pink Man Group is my favorite show

  And Cyan Girls songs make my day

  These colors are wrong. When you correct them, you’ll know there is a color that’s missing from this list. Take the missing color, rearrange the letters, and come up with two words that describe how I feel about murder.

  Do you like anagrams, Joe?

  I love them. Vomit heel. Meth olive. Hovel time. I love them.

  So when you figure out the answer to the puzzle, you need to make an anagram of it.

  Anagram. Agar man.

  Did I forget my meds?

  Or take too much?

  Did I write the puzzle yet?

  Oh, yeah. Here’s a hint.

  SPOILER ALERT!

  Like light through a prism.

  But you knew that already, right, Joe?

  Is this Joe?

  Who’s reading this?

  What gives you the right to read my private correspondence? This isn’t prison. You aren’t the Warden, censoring my mail.

  Can you read my mind, too?

  Do you know what I’m thinking right now?