# The Case of the Loose Wire
Strip: The Loose Wire
Meta: 6 panels · 3 across × 2 down · LEAD: CONNIE CHASE · present tense throughout
Pointer: Case notes: case-notes-loose-wire.md · series rules: the Casebook
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.
> **This is the source.** The build is `comic-loose-wire.html`, generated from this file
> by `rake comedy:build`. Write here; the build is disposable and gets overwritten.
>
> Format: `##` opens a row · `**PANEL n · tone**` opens a panel · `>` is a
> balloon, one per line · `!` is the art note · `` `backticks` `` are
> on-screen text · everything else is a caption. They render in the order
> written, and captions number themselves (CAP 1/2, CAP 2/2). Blank line
> between blocks; a caption or balloon may wrap onto unmarked lines.
>
> Tones: `noir` `arena` `turn` `product`, plus `flashback` and `wide`. A tone
> carries forward, so write it only where it changes; the first panel must state
> one. Modifiers never carry: `wide` describes one frame, not a run.
> `Layout: widerow` under a row heading merges it to one frame, whose beats are
> then `### BEAT n` blocks each holding their own captions.
```css
header.brief p { margin: 0 0 0.5rem; max-width: 62ch; color: #e9dcf5; line-height: 1.6; }
header.brief p:last-child { margin-bottom: 0; }
```
---
## Row 1 — the case (full noir)
**PANEL 1 · noir**
Sixty informants. Each one wearing a wire.
And if they're doing their job right, I'll never hear a single word.
**PANEL 2 · noir**
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.
**PANEL 3 · noir**
> 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)
**PANEL 4 · turn**
`⚠ 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?
**PANEL 5 · product**
> Mrs. Ruiz? Connie, from the university. When does that watch come off?
> [phone] 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.
**PANEL 6 · product**
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.