The Marquee Letters
- A case in 10 chapters
- Free to play
- Large print
- Read in order
How the case begins
The Bijou has spelled its own name over Main Street in polished brass since 1924, and on Thursday morning the marquee says nothing at all. Every letter gone, clean as teeth from a comb, five stories of ladder-work above the sidewalk and not a screw dropped. The anniversary gala is Saturday. The owners, who live in the city and think in ledgers, have let it be known that a poor gala makes this the Bijou's last season, which means the theft is aimed at the theater's heart, or looks it. Suspicion arrives on schedule. A salvage dealer nobody knows checked into the hotel Tuesday and has been asking around about brass. The projectionist has been staying strange hours. And Faye Bishop, who manages the Bijou like a captain who intends to go down with it, has begun to wonder about the quietest man in town: Emmett Cole, the retired sign painter, who has taken to walking past the naked marquee at odd times with his hands behind his back, looking up at the empty rails the way other men look at the sea.
Each chapter is a short scene and a puzzle, and every puzzle leaves you one clue. Keep all nine. The finale needs them.
- 1The Empty Rails
- 2The Marks on the Bricks
- 3The Supplier's Boy
- 4The Smell at Dawn
- 5The Hooks in the Rails
- 6Lamplight on Cooper Street
- 7The Shapes Under the Canvas
- 8The Badger Brushes
- 9The Dealer's Errand
- 10Saturday at Duskbring your clues
The people of the case
- Faye Bishop. The Bijou's manager. One gala away from the owners closing the place, and she knows the arithmetic to the seat.
- Emmett Cole. The retired sign painter. Cut and gilded the Bijou's letters in 1924, his first big job. Says little, walks past often.
- Leo Brandt. The projectionist. Keeps strange hours lately, and the booth's back stairs see him come and go.
- Nick Riva. A salvage dealer, new in town since Tuesday, asking around about brass. Suspicious for existing.
- Opal Grimes. The box-office cashier. Sees everyone who passes on Main Street, and remembers them in order.
- Pearl Hays. The usherette, forty years of aisle three. The Bijou's memory, and Emmett Cole's oldest friend.
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.