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The Case of the Loose Wire

Lead: Connie Chase. Present day, and entirely present tense: one Friday evening, end to end, perhaps twenty minutes of real time. No time tags, no double frames, no sepia anywhere.

Case notes to follow at case-notes-loose-wire.md; radio version not yet drafted.

Source: comic-loose-wire.md

The Loose Wire

6 panels · 3 across × 2 down · LEAD: CONNIE CHASE · present tense throughout

Row 1 — the case (full noir)

1
Sixty informants. Each one wearing a wire.
And if they're doing their job right, I'll never hear a single word.
2
Number thirty-one's a head-scratcher, though. Only wears it most of the time, not all day. Informants who want out don't go cold turkey. They ease off, a little at a time. Sure would be a shame if I had to take her off the books.
3
I'm sure you're already aware, but VIGIL's thirty-one is at seventy-four percent. Under seventy and she's out.
Don't chase it, though. People drift.
Dr. Grant does this every Friday. Says goodnight, gets halfway to the car, comes back with a number.
She was right. Probably just random anyway. But then something caught my attention.

Row 2 — the break (hinge, then the product)

4
⚠  031 · WEAR TIME 74% · UNCHANGED 41 DAYS
Seventy-four percent. Dr. Grant was right on the money.
But hold on... forty-one days with a sigma you could slip under a door? How is she that consistent?
5
Mrs. Ruiz? Connie, from the university. When does that watch come off?
Oh, when I charge it. The card you gave me says daily, so I plug it in when I go to bed.
She had an alibi. CHARGE DAILY. Two words, and neither one was when.
6
When a wire flips on you, it pays to ask. Could be the bird has flown. Sometimes it just can't find its way back to the nest.
I was about to tell Dr. Grant all this, when I realized her car had been gone ten minutes.

Case notes: case-notes-loose-wire.md · series rules: the Casebook