Chapter 3 of 10
A switchboard is honest the way a staircase is: use wears it, and the wear does not lie. Speece and Gantry work the night position cord by cord. The local pairs show twenty years' soft fraying of gossip, doctors' orders and feed prices. Ordinary. Innocent. The long-distance pairs stop the audit cold: fabric burnished, plugs bright, cords supple with handling, wear no country night board has honest reason to accumulate. Gantry runs the day book back and confirms what her thumbs know: by day, this exchange places long-distance twice a week. The night wear says dozens of distance connections, made after the day book closed. Speece writes one underlined sentence: the night board reaches out of this county, often, unknown to the paper. The question stops being whether the note is right. It is wrong. Something bigger is true.
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.
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About this case
A chapter of The Night Operator, a mystery told in word searches. Each chapter leaves you one clue; the finale needs them all.
Prefer pen and paper?
Print The Night Operator as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger, and the ending sealed on the last page.
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 color 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.