Growing up, I was a fan of Nancy Drew mystery stories. Nancy Drew #44 is The Clue in the Crossword Cipher.
I've taken some liberties in rewriting the story for this cache, but I hope you can help Nancy solve the Clue in the Crossword Cipher and find the fabulous treasure!
Lovely young Carla Ponce invited Nancy and her friends Bess and George to meet her for lunch to help solve a mystery. A clue is embedded in an old crossword puzzle she found in her grandmother's attic which promises to lead to a fabulous treasure.
Sitting down to lunch, Carla pulled out the crossword.
"Here, Nancy, have a look," said Carla as she ordered herself a Caesar salad.
Nancy could see that the faded puzzle looked pretty normal except that several of the boxes were highlighted in green. "That's odd," said Nancy, also ordering a Caesar salad. "I wonder if the letters that belong in the green boxes spell a word."
"Hmm," said George, taking a look at the puzzle. Flipping the paper over he found what looked like the clues to the crossword puzzle. "I think I'll also have a Caesar."
"Caesar for everyone," said Bess, taking her turn at having a look. "What's this here in the margin," asked Bess pointing to some odd text:
Gp absglej abdubbv wfb jqsewgqp qc wfb sesfb gv cquwn-qpb rqgpw cgzb qpb pgpb vgo kbuq kbuq yn pbdewgzb bgdfwn-bgdfw rqgpw kbuq cqxu pgpb qpb vgo vbzbp
"Maybe it's some kind of code?" suggested George.
"You know, this puzzle doesn't look terribly difficult," said Nancy. "Let's give it a go."
The four ate their Caesar salads and took turns solving the crossword puzzle. Afterwards, they decided to head to Elmhurst Cemetery to visit Carla's grandmother's grave while they finished it up.
As Nancy drove them, shifting the gears of her car, she was still thinking about what a great lunch they had. She shifted gears again. "You know," she said, shifting gears for a third time. "The key to a really great Caesar...," she shifted one more time, "is the dressing."
"That's it! A keyed Caesar," interrupted Bess. "Now we've got the key and everything else we need to solve the mystery!"
The crossword puzzle that Carla found in her grandmother's attic can be found in the picture gallery. The clues are below:
ACROSS
4 piece of information used in the solving of a mystery
6 Roman politician; type of salad dressing
8 a person who discovers an unfamiliar area; an adventurer
10 ghost author of Nancy Drew Mystery Series
11 a puzzle, enigma, or conundrum
15 place dead are buried
16 number in a pair
17 tailed aquatic larva of an amphibian
18 a Jesuit missionary, one of the first explorers to the area
19 key below the “Enter” key on a standard keyboard
20 heroine in a mystery series (two words)
DOWN
1 city named after French Canadian explorer
2 excited or euphoric
3 excavation to bury dead
5 hidden container found using GPS
6 a secret or disguised way of writing; a code
7 vase for ashes
9 name of cemetery where the mystery is located
10 a small piece of shaped metal with incisions cut to fit a particular lock
12 building for housing a tomb
13 First president of the U.S.
14 a person whose occupation is to investigate and solve crimes