The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 1 · Alibi web ·
The Ferry Office Takings
A blackout on Lantern Pier, a satchel set down in the dark, and a day of fares gone.
The case file
Monday, 9:40 pm. The storm took the lights on Lantern Pier for ten minutes. Mr. Osric Penhallow, manager of the Merrow and Saltholm Ferry Company, was locking up with the day's takings in his leather satchel. In the dark he set it down while he went to check a lamp, and he cannot say where: he was hurrying between the ticket office, the waiting room, the gangway and the freight shed.
When the lights came back the satchel was where he had left it, strap cut through, and $212 in fares was gone. Four people were on the pier, one in each of those places. Constable Rook later picked up four things dropped in the dark: a penknife, the office's spare key, a hatpin and a boathook. Each of the four had one of them in hand. Find out who was where, who held what, and who emptied the satchel.
Who was there
- Mrs. Ida Hale, ticket clerk. Brisk, ink on her cuffs, answers before you finish asking.
- Tobias Crewe, deckhand on the night ferry. Big hands, wet sleeves, says six words where others say sixty.
- Daisy Fenn, runs the tea stall on the pier. Cheerful, tired, keeps one eye on her urn the whole time you talk.
- Silas Dunmore, freight agent. Polished boots, a polished smile, and a pencil he never stops turning.
The places: the ticket office, the waiting room, the gangway and the freight shed.
The means: a penknife, the spare key, a hatpin and a boathook.
Case 1 · Monday, October 26
The questioning room
This case's night is Monday, October 26, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Fill the board, then name the guilty
Most cases on the night desk hand you one fact about the act itself, here a cut strap, and leave you to place everyone else. Resist the urge to guess at the guilty party first. Place people with the firm statements, mark every X the statement implies, and the last empty square in each row is usually an answer you never had to be told. The penknife only mattered once it had an owner.
How to solve a Night Desk case, with a worked example.
The solution
The night desk's write-up appears here once you solve the case, or from Tuesday, October 27, the night after it opens.