Page 36 of Absent Reason

"Amber Young," he said. "You're famous. I didn't get it before when you said you were an FBI agent, but you'refamous."

"I'm not sure I am," Amber replied.

"No, no, you are. You were the puzzle editor for the Washington News, right? You set questions for the five states quiz off?"

"Well... yes," Amber admitted. It occurred to her that, for a very specific kind of person, that probably did count as famous. And Mark clearly was that kind of person.

"That's amazing!" Mark said. "But what areyoudoinghere?"

Amber looked over to Simon, wondering how she should handle this. He shrugged. He obviously didn't know any better than her what to do about an obsessive quiz fan. If anything, Amber probably had more experience than he did with that.

"We're here looking into three murders, Mark," Amber said. "Those of Mia Wilson, Kelly Wasner, and Victoria Crossing."

"I... I knew Mia from the puzzle society," Mark said.

Simon cut in. "We know you did. We also know that you argued with her."

"That was... I just couldn't believe that she beat me!" Mark said. He sounded as if he still couldn’t quite believe it.

"Because she's a woman?" Amber guessed.

"Because she was never any good at puzzles before. She got lucky. A puzzle shouldn't be about luck. It should be about skill and knowledge. It shouldn't be random. Not like that."

"What about the Konigsberg bridge problem?" Amber asked. "What do you think about that?"

"That's not even a real puzzle," Mark said with a contemptuous sound as if the whole thing were beneath him. "It's impossible to solve correctly, so there's nopointto it."

"You don't like impossible problems?" Amber asked.

Mark shook his head. "They aren't fair."

That was a sentiment Amber could agree with. One that she could understand. Simon still had questions, though.

"Where were you the last couple of nights?"

Mark thought for a moment or two. "Last night, I pulled an all-nighter in the library. I had a math paper to finish, but I kept getting distracted playing online chess. One of the librarians told me off for doing that. He said I was disturbing people, but there wasn't anyone around. And I waswinning. The night before that, there was a frat party. The guys all insisted that I go, even though I hate that kind of thing. I think they just like laughing at the thought of me being there."

Both would be fairly easy to check. With the library, in particular, it would be easy to use cameras and key card data to establish whether he was there around midnight. They would check, but the very fact he’d given them something so easy to verify suggested to Amber that it wasn’t likely to be him.

Amber stood up. "Thank you, Mark, you've been very helpful. Tell me, can you think of anyone whowouldbe interested in the Konigsberg bridge problem?"

"Just some of the math people," Mark said. "They treat that kind of thing like it matters, like impossible problems are something special."

Amber headed for the door with Simon behind her.

"We’re leaving already?” he asked. “We're not going to ask him more questions?"

"You heard his alibi. It's easy to check. Too easy for someone with something to hide. Either he's telling us the truth, or he's lying, and we’ll find out quickly. Then we come back for him, but honestly? I don't think he's the killer."

Simon raised a slight smile. "Because he's a fan?"

Amber got the feeling that she hadn't heard the last of that. That she wouldn’t for a while. "Because he hates puzzles that aren't real. I have a bit of the same feeling, Simon. When I realized what the killer was doing, do you know what my first reaction was?”

She saw Simon frown. “No. What?”

“That it wasn’t fair. A part of me felt as though the biggest thing this killer, thismurderer, had done wrong was to set a problem with no solution. Now imagine how much worse it is for Mark. You've seen him and heard about him. He's clearly obsessed with puzzles, but real ones. If this were some nearly impossible problem that the victims had to solve, then maybe, but a genuinely impossible problem... no."

"So we're looking for people with an interest in that kind of impossible problem?" Simon said as they left the house. He looked back towards the university campus. "And I guess he already told us where we need to look for that."

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