The Copy Cat Files - Wish You Were Here IV - Typewriter Card

 Ok, this was an odd one. I was not prepared, my iPad wasn't charged properly, and by the time I sat down with my laptop, we'd already solved some of the puzzles. Because of course. So, without further ado, Card #3 of Enigma Emporium's Wish You Were Here Series IV - The Copycat Files.

On the front we have a series of four lines, which...

My puzzling partner solved another one before I even finished writing that paragraph. In the top paragraph on the back, aside from the red herring, is a series of words that sound like letters: tea = T, for example. Reading through, we get TOKYO (tea-oh-'kay-why-oh) out of the odd sounds. I guess our penpal this time is in Japan. 

As I was typing, before I got so gleefully interrupted, on the front there are four lines of text at the top, starting with the letters KEIL - which rearranged form LIKE, which are the four letters in the stamps at the top of the other side of the card. So, we know that, with a bit of effort, we're going to rearrange those lines and get a word. Back to the front, there are also six lines of spaced out numbers, with a return arrow like an ENTER key on a keyboard. I expect we know how to solve that as well,

On the back are the four above-mentioned stamps, spelling LIKE, and two paragraphs of longhand text. The first two obvious bits are red letters, which spell Herring. Red herring. haha. And poor capitalization in the bottom paragraph spells out MADE YOU LOOK, while hinting at the solution to the top paragraph - sounding the words out. 

Back to the four lines on the front, which my puzzling partner addresses while my food order arrives and I have to defend it from my cats with a squirt gun. #fosterfail. Anyhow, the result is: "Like printing your own money someone said and I decided to go for the real thing. Counterfeiting is quite easy really" Sounds like the Secret Service would need to get involved, not just the FBI.

While he does that, I work on the bottom section - the keyboard. From the look of it, it's a series of 9 words, where each set is made of the keys. I have to figure out how to align it, and hit a wall, which I blame on having to spend a significant portion of my attention squirting cats to keep them out of my barbecue. I have too many cats. It wasn't intentional. 

If we assume that each set is the three lines of letters on a keyboard, the two are going to have to be interwoven - there are no 2s in the top set, for example. Also and this I didn't see, but the numbers that are close together are the same key, not adjacent. So, we need to align the keys and figure out the numbers. This is going to take a while. 

1. A S K/H 
2. OK
3. 
   
4. HJ
5.   
6.  P
7.  ?
8.  QUQE
9.  TETOSSHH -> shot steosh

We eventually give up and look for a hint on this one. We cannot seem to figure out the alignment of the keyboard vs. the numbers, no matter how we line things up. We were close but not THAT close. instead of forming words, the number is how deep to count. So, we get: IEEOEERITY Nope. We try reading up and down like the ones above: I HAVE MADE OVER FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS NOW. 

So, is that our solution? A counterfeiter living in Tokyo who's made over $50 million? No name? 

Back to the hints... This time, we're told that the 'made you look' isn't the message, but there's something in the background... holding it up to my nose I realize there are breaks in the underline, and my puzzling partner solves it while I defend my dessert (baked quince with brown sugar and walnuts) from a cat I have foolishly set free from the bathroom/prison. I AM WARREN ASH. 

Now we know we're set :) And thus, minus interfering cats, a mini meltdown, a now-empty squirt gun, and a very patient puzzling partner, we have the solution for the third card of the Copy Cat files by Enigma Emporium. Good puzzles, and I'd like to think we'd have solved them eventually without the clues, if it weren't for those darn cats. :)