Page 44 of Playing With My Heart Strings

Three rows with nine numbers in each. But the middle set is missing and the bottom right is also missing.

“What the fuck kind of puzzle is this?” Sage whines, and it breaks me out of my focus for a second.

“I don’t know. It’s confusing to me,” Valerie sighs. “But we need to figure it out.”

“Maybe we need to add the numbers up?” Sage suggests.

I’m still trying to think, but that’s worth a try.

“Five plus four is nine, not three, so I don’t know if that’s what we need to do,” Valerie says after a minute of silence.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Some of the middle digits add to double digit numbers,” Sage replies with a disheartened tone.

Three rows of nine. Each column has three numbers.

What am I missing here?

“Maybe just try random number combinations. One has to work eventually,” Sage jokes, but her voice comes out flat.

Valerie laughs. “If that wouldn’t take us thirty minutes, I’d go for it.”

“Wait! Can you read the numbers again? Just the first row.” I have an idea of what it is, but I need it confirmed.

“Yeah. Five, nine, six, two, four, eight, three, one, seven.”

Five, nine, six, two, four, eight, three, one, seven.

Wait. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

“Sudoku!” I exclaim.

“Sudo-what?” I can tell Sage is confused.

“It’s a sudoku puzzle. Or, part of one at least. Each row has to have numbers one through nine. And usually each column would, too, but they made it easy on us.”

“Wait, Baylor, you’re a genius!” Valerie cheers.

It only takes us a few minutes to come up with the missing numbers. Five, one, and three in the middle column, and two, four, and five, in the bottom right.

“Okay, now we just have to figure out what the combination is. Do we know how much time has gone by?” I ask, silently hoping that one of the producers is listening and will give us a time warning.

“No, but it probably took us longer than it should have, so we need to move fast. Five is repeated, which makes me think that’s one of the numbers used. Now we just have to find the other two. Maybe just try five, one, three to see,” Sage suggests.

Valerie fumbles with the padlock, the dials clicking into place. “Nope, that’s not it.”

“Maybe add the numbers up? Five plus one plus three is nine and two plus four plus five is eleven. Nine, one, one?” I throw out a wild guess with a laugh. If we don’t make it out of here, they mighthaveto call nine-one-one for us. The answer is probably so clear, though, and we’re just not seeing it.

“That didn’t work either,” Valerie’s voice is as dejected as I feel. To be honest, I don’t want any of us to go home, so we need to figure this out. “Wait, guys. There’s something written on the toolbox. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.”

“What does it say?” I ask before Sage can.

“It just says ‘area.’”

“Guys, there are also some symbols on the wall here. A dash and two plus signs on top of a plus sign, dash, and a plus sign.” Sage interrupts us.

“Interesting…” This was too much math for a reality dating show. “What were the six numbers again?”

“Five, one, three, and two, four, five.”

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