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The Second Encore
The Second Encore

Reopening Night

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Chapter 1 of 10

The Blue Room's reopening is everything Mort Fingers promised the press: supper at white tables, candles in amber glass, the new spotlight warming the little stage. The first set lands clean. At the interval the crowd is loud and happy, and Ed Pruitt is drafting a triumph at his corner table. Backstage, Lonnie Vale flips the latches on his trumpet case for the second set, the set with the showpiece, and knows in one breath something is wrong. The mute is where he left it. The horn is not how he left it. The valves will not move, not stiff but stopped, solid as a poured statue. A trumpet does not do this to itself in ninety minutes. Somebody did this to it, backstage, in the stretch when every eye in the building was out front.

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About this case

A chapter of The Second Encore, a mystery told in word searches. Each chapter leaves you one clue; the finale needs them all.

How a mystery chapter works

  1. 1
    Read the scene first.Every chapter opens with a scene from the case. The word list is drawn from it, and so is the clue.
  2. 2
    Find 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.
  3. 3
    One 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.
  4. 4
    The 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.

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Print The Second Encore as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger, and the ending sealed on the last page.

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