Chapter 5 of 10
Every long-distance call earns a toll ticket: times, destination, charges, the operator's initials. It is the company's blood ledger; Speece trusts it. Three years of night tickets fill half a drawer: perfect, few, nowhere near the wear on those cords. Somewhere between the board and the drawer, calls are vanishing. The answer sits in Marion's own pay packets, because auditors end at the money. Regular small deductions in her hand, matching the tolls on calls to a military hospital, a rectory, a Red Cross office. He does the sums. Calls on no ticket anywhere. She has been placing calls off the books and paying them herself, from an operator's wages, for years. Speece puts down his pencil. In thirty years he has caught men stealing from every company he served. He has never caught an employee smuggling money in.
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.