Chapter 5 of 10
The feed store's girl, twelve and unbribable but not unobservant, tidies the stranger's room Saturdays. On the dresser, she tells her mother, propped against the shaving mirror, stands a photograph: eight soldiers against a tank in a sanded, squinting country, arms over shoulders, the platoon's names inked along the bottom. Word travels by telephone to Ada, who climbs the feed store's outside stairs that evening, knocks, and is let in without a word. Ada reads the names the way you would walk a row of headstones. Fourth from the left, grinning under a helmet two sizes big: Pvt. D. Bly. Beside him, an arm across her son's shoulders, a lean man with a stillness she recognizes: Cpl. T. Culley. She looks a long time, then asks the room's tenant, quietly, what he has been waiting to be asked.
Use the arrow keys to move between letters. Press Enter or Space on the first letter of a word, then again on the last letter. Press Escape to cancel.
armchairpuzzles.com · free large-print word searches
About this case
A chapter of The Man off the Bus, a mystery told in word searches. Each chapter leaves you one clue; the finale needs them all.
How a mystery chapter works
- 1Read the scene first.Every chapter opens with a scene from the case. The word list is drawn from it, and so is the clue.
- 2Find the words.Tap a word's first letter, then tap along to its last, or press and drag. Found words colour themselves in and cross off the list.
- 3One listed word is not in the grid.Find the other nine and the word left over is the chapter's clue. Note it down, or let the case page keep it for you.
- 4The finale needs every clue.The last puzzle's word list is the clues you collected, and once you find them all, the leftover letters spell out who did it, and why.
Prefer pen and paper?
Print The Man off the Bus as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger, and the ending sealed on the last page.