The Last Page of the Night
- A case in 10 chapters
- Free to play
- Large print
- Read in order
How the case begins
Radio station WHRM, a Thursday evening in January of 1948. Snow on the aerial, a full house in the listening booth, and the twelfth season of The Midnight Caller twenty minutes from its final broadcast. On the table where the scripts are stacked, every copy ends the same way: at page eleven. The final page, the page with the ending, is not in the building. The serial has kept this station alive for twelve years, and tonight it has to: the sponsor's renewal sits unsigned in a briefcase in the glass booth, and everyone from the organ loft to the mail room knows what happens to WHRM without it. Six people were here all evening. Two of them were engaged to each other once, fifteen years ago, and have spent twelve seasons not mentioning it. One of the six knows exactly where the last page went, and the show goes on the air at eight.
Each chapter is a short scene and a puzzle, and every puzzle leaves you one clue. Keep all nine. The finale needs them.
- 1Twenty Minutes to Air
- 2The Effects Table
- 3The Green Room
- 4The Organ Loft
- 5The Sponsor's Booth
- 6The Mail Room
- 7The Writer's Office
- 8The Transmitter Shack
- 9Between the Acts
- 10On the Airbring your clues
The people of the case
- Vera Holt. The serial's star, all twelve seasons. Engaged to its writer once, fifteen years ago. Nobody at WHRM mentions it, and nobody has forgotten it.
- Morris Klein. The writer. Every episode, every season, every word. Tonight, for the first time in twelve years, he refused to read his ending aloud at rehearsal.
- Chet Barlow. The announcer, smoothest voice in three counties, keeper of the station's unspoken rules. Times everything. Says little.
- Ivy Chen. The sound effects girl, two years in, precise as a jeweler. Morris taught her the thunder sheet her first week.
- Fern Whitaker. The organist since the station first signed on. Keeps her hymnal on the music stand and her opinions to herself.
- Sam Dole. The sponsor's man. His soap money keeps the lights on, and his new contract is the reason tonight might be the serial's last.
Prefer pen and paper?
The whole case as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger to fill in, and the ending sealed on the last page.