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Endgame Overview

Various Palindrome Members

When the solving team has solved all seven dossier metas, they are visited by the suspect Alan Caster, on the lam, who explains that they must determine who among the suspects is the killer, with the aid of:

• A testsolving packet just sent back by a testsolver in Timbuktu, containing a cover letter from Dr. Awkward, and the three rather lame puzzles (Just Fueling Around, Some Scrambled Word Game ..., and Fortune) that were supposed to constitute the first round of the Mystery Hunt as originally planned (until Dr. Awkward got killed, derailing everything). Each puzzle has its solution (visible here, here, and here, respectively) handwritten on the back.
• A crisscross grid containing 51 entries, that can be overlaid on the map the team received in the Little Black Book at the beginning of the Hunt.

As Alan describes, the cover letter and puzzles can be combined with the dossier information to determine (in logic-puzzle fashion) which three suspects wrote first-round puzzles and thus had the means to commit the crime (access to the knife); the crisscross grid can be used with the Little Black Book puzzle answers to determine which three suspects have unverifiable alibis and thus had the opportunity to commit the crime.

Only one suspect had both means and opportunity; that suspect must be the killer. After confirming their reasoning with Alan, the solving team contacts the killer, who admits his/her guilt but says that they'll never prove it. While taunting them, the killer lets information slip that indicates what building the coin is hidden in (see the crisscross writeup for more details, including the identity of the building); infomation from the cover letter enables them to pinpoint the exact room.

On arriving at that room, the solving team finds, instead of the coin:

• A handwritten note from Dr. Awkward, saying:
  
  Dear Mystery Hunt 2008 Team,
  
  Congratulations -- you have found the coin! (Unless on my way to hide it, I stopped to check on something at the start of the runaround and got stabbed, dying with my oven mitt still on, and the killer left the coin there in haste. But hey, what are the chances of that happening?)
  
  Since the runaround you just completed was so terrific, I've left you some souvenir copies of it.
  
  Sincerely,
  Dr. Otto Awkward
  
  
• A stack of handsomely printed copies of a runaround.

The team must now follow the runaround backwards. When they finally reach the "beginning," they find the coin there; the coin clearly shows the killer's fingerprint, which is the proof they need.