The Westing Game Chapter 24 Summary

Wrong All Wrong

  • The players and Plum all go to the library, where he reads instructions, and opens a locked drawer to find the next part.
  • Part fifteen says all their answers are wrong, and the partnerships are dissolved. It also says Plum will leave and come back with the police, and they'd better find out the name before there's another murder. It repeats that what you are missing matters more than what you have.
  • Madame Hoo knows something's up, and worries she'll be found out for taking all those things.
  • Everyone gets worried; they don't know how much time they have, and Dr. Deere thinks they're paranoid.
  • Sandy pauses to tell Turtle that the game's still on, and that she might still take it.
  • Theo pulls everyone together and says they should share their clues. Sydelle wonders if anyone has a clue that isn't in the song.
  • Jake quotes the will, saying "It is not what you have, it's what you don't have that counts" (24.21), and says maybe there are words missing from the song in their clues.
  • Mr. Hoo asks if "amber" is missing, and Otis says it doesn't matter, because he was a wrong answer.
  • The players figure out that "amber" is missing, although they have "am." They don't know what the "am" stands for.
  • Sandy takes charge and says everyone should give their clues to Sydelle, so she can arrange them. This confuses Judge Ford, who doesn't get why Sandy would do that when he knows the answer is Crow. She looks at him and remembers what Chris said about everyone getting the right partner. She realizes that he's the one person she didn't do research on, and that he must be Sam Westing.
  • Sydelle puts the clues in order and says the missing parts are "ber," "the," "erica," and "crow," which spells out Crow's full name.
  • Judge Ford leaps to her defense, saying that just because Crow's name is the answer to the puzzle doesn't mean she killed anyone, or even that Westing was killed. She says they shouldn't sacrifice Crow to their own greed.
  • She's about to reveal Sandy when he chokes, turns red, and falls to the floor. Jake and Dr. Deere move to help, while Theo calls for help. Plum and two other men come in. One of them is Dr. Sikes, the other's a sheriff.
  • Turtle calls out for Sandy and then looks down at him as he spasms and then is still.
  • Dr. Sikes says he's dead, and the judge realizes she must have made a mistake.
  • The players return to the game room. Plum has to read another part of the will.
  • The sheriff thinks the whole thing is weird, especially because he was called in thirty minutes before anyone died.
  • Plum reads part sixteen, which says that Westing was originally named Sam Windkloppel and that someone better claim the prize in the next five minutes. It says happy Fourth of July.
  • Everyone sits and thinks about how they could get the money if they said Crow's name, but no one's sure she's really a murderer.
  • After four minutes, Crow says her name is the answer. Angela and Otis protest, but she repeats that her name is the answer. She says she's also the winner, and she wants to divide her winnings between Angela and the soup kitchen.