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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:

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:

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.