#2 The Dogliest Detective and the Mystery of the Missing Letters
"Toby! You have an assignment." yelled Captain McGruff the moment Toby arrived at work his second day at the Alaska Consulting Detective Agency.
"You better not mess this up. One of our best clients, Miss Havisham, says strange people have started showing up in her neighborhood park at all times of the day and night. They stare at their cell phones, closely examine tree trunks, reach over and under fences -- all sorts of weird activity. But whenever somebody comes near them, they pretend to talk into their phone."
"Miss Havisham thinks the CIA has installed a tiny monitoring device under a park table. She has seen these agents actually pull something out from under the table, maybe download recordings and change batteries, then put it back. Toby, you need to go check it out. But be quick about it, but don't come back until you figure it out."
So Toby went to the park to sniff around for clues. He didn't find much at first and he couldn't check one table because it was occupied by a girl doing homework. Since kids usually take a quick liking to Toby, it wasn't long before Estella was asking him to help fix her schoolwork that had been smeared in the rain. He helped her complete the first part:
24 H____ in a D____ = 24 Hours in a Day
26 L_____ of the A_____ = 26 Letters of the Alphabet
13 L _____ in a B_____ D_____ = 13 Loaves in a Baker's Dozen
7 D_____ of the W_____ = 7 Days of the Week
7 W_____ of the W_____ = 7 Wonders of the World
But Toby was new to Alaska and he was stumped by some items in the "Alaska" section:
1049 M_____ in the I_____ R_____ [Answers: M, I, R]
8 S_____ of G_____ on a F_____ of B_____ [Answers: S, G, F, B]
20,310 F_____ is the E_____ of D_____ [Answers: FF, E, D]
66 D_____ 33 M_____ is the A____ C____ [Answers: DD, MM, A, C]
Extra Credit
12 T_____ O____ in a P____ of G____
141 D____ W____ is the B____ of A____ and C_____
Toby noticed a couple people entering in the park and kept his eye on them as they stared at their cell phones and walked erratically in circles. As odd as the visitors seemed at first, they turned out to be nice and knowledgeable about Alaska. Soon Toby had drafted them to help Estella complete the Alaska section of her homework. He also learned from them all he needed to know to solve his first assignment, and he returned to the office with his tail wagging.
Finding the Cache
The key to finding the cache is to figure out the answers that Toby didn't solve. Then translate the answers into single digit numbers by counting the numbers of letters in the word (including the first letter). The micro-size cache and log scroll can be found at the coordinates below, and you can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
N 61° 10. (M) (G) (six) W 149° 51. (D-4) (C-2) (zero)
Puzzle masters may claim "extra credit" in your online log if you solve the Extra Credit problems.