She found a slim volume discarded or left behind on a bench near Fanueil Hall as we sat to eat our Thai takeout (but not for long because the whole area smelled like piss even though it was pretty and clean and shaded by tall trees) entitled: SOLV-A-CRIME PUZZLES (Singer Media Corporation; Dover Publications; 1972). Have you ever wanted to be a detective? Well, now is your chance! Read each mystery very carefully: there are clues cleverly hidden where you least expect them! We amused ourselves for a while reading a scenario or two, matching wits with a host of devilish burglars, con men, murderers, until we were ready to give up, at which point she turned the book upside down where the solutions are printed. After a while we packed up and headed for the T stop at Government Square, boarding an outbound train for the Museum of Fine Arts stop. The car was packed. A young man next to her was speaking loudly into his cell.
“Get out of the Old Port area. Drive up Munjoy Hill. Keep turning right and left without using your signals. Just don’t turn into a cul-de-sac. You’ll lose him, I promise. It’s going to be OK. Get to 1-295 as soon as you can. You’ll be able to outrun him then. Oh. We’re coming to a tunnel. I’m losing you. I’ll call you back.” He got off at Symphony.
Do you have what it takes to be a real detective? Or listen to a suspect’s story and be able to spot where the truth ends and the fiction begins?
- Boston Public - February 2, 2013
