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The Stacked Deck

Lead: Dr. Tracy Grant. Present day. Panels 1–8 are one continuous evening; panel 9 is the next morning.

The nine cells are scaffolding, not a layout. Merge them horizontally wherever the art wants room — a full-width opener, a two-cell landscape for the climax. The only limit is the tonal break: nothing merges across the line between rows 2 and 3.

Direction is deliberately thin. Each square names at most two things to see, and several name nothing at all. Everything not stated is the artist's.

Case notes at case-notes-stacked-deck.md; radio script at radio-stacked-deck.html.

Source: comic-stacked-deck.md

The Stacked Deck

9 panels · 3 across × 3 down · LEAD: DR. TRACY GRANT

Row 1 — the trial

1
Whiteboard: a grid of four columns, A through D
ABCD
Four arms. Two clinics. One randomized allocation list, like a shuffled deck of cards, drawn up back in the spring by a man two states over I've never met.
2
The same whiteboard grid; one column running sicker at baseline
ABCD
5.96.06.76.1
But one of those arms kept getting people who were sicker than the others.
First thing you check is the deal itself. A bad shuffle or an unseen magician would explain a lot.
3
The concealment notice on screen
THIS STUDY CONCEALS ARM ASSIGNMENT.
ONLY THE STUDY STATISTICIAN CAN READ THE ALLOCATION ORDER.
Four cards face down on the table, and not a one of 'em I'm allowed to turn over.

Row 2 — the case, and the break

4
The unblinding control, audit notice beside it
There's a switch down in the basement. Brings up the house lights. I'd be able to see every card that's been dealt and what's still left in the deck.
Trouble is, the watchdog's down there too. And Fido's barking wakes up half the neighborhood.
5
Pencil and an envelope: three assignments down, the fourth forced
Fine, I'll try it myself. Four suits, four arms. Here we go. Clubs... Diamonds... Hearts... and hey, now the fourth one's obvious, even dealt face down!
Someone was counting cards! Or at least peeked at the rest of the deck. That second one I can check.
6
The access log, every count at zero
ALLOCATION ORDER · QUARTET — SEALED
VIEWS 0  ·  DOWNLOADS 0  ·  LAST OPENED —
Six months, and not one bark out of Fido. So nobody peeked. That leaves card-counting as the only suspect.
Or maybe this whole deal has been one big misdirection. Suppose I cut the cards a different way?

Row 3 — the answer

7
The grid wiped and redrawn as two columns, by clinic
And suddenly there it was, as obvious as an ace up a short sleeve.
If I deal by clinic, I get two piles. And the sicker clinic's cards aren't spread across the four arms at all. One of 'em simply got more than the others.
8
The one deck, and the two piles it should have been
Each site should have gotten their own dealer.
Nobody stacked the deck. We just never cut it in two.
9
The office, late; the desk as she left it
Connie. Who set up the access alert notifications on this study?
You did. Back in March. Then you complained about it for a solid week.
Turns out shuffling the cards is harder than it looks. And if I ever find myself in the basement, remind me to give that watchdog a treat.

Case notes: case-notes-stacked-deck.md · series rules: the Casebook