The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 6 · Alibi web ·
The Kittiwake Tea Caddy
A tea dance, a prize caddy spoiled with seawater, and one person whose story will not hold.
The case file
Saturday, 8:10 pm. During the last waltz of the Kittiwake Tea Rooms' Saturday dance, someone opened Maud Kittredge's locked tea caddy in the back and poured seawater over the blend she meant to enter in Sunday's harbor tea contest. Ninety dollars of leaf, and a year's work, ruined in the ten minutes of the waltz.
Four people were away from the dance floor, one in each of the kitchen, the dining room, the pantry and the yard. Each had one thing in hand that could open a caddy: the spare key, a hairpin, the sugar tongs or the cake knife. Grane clipped a note to the file: "One of these four will lie to you, about themselves and about the others. The guilty party lies. Everyone else tells you the truth as they saw it."
Who was there
- Flo Penmarrow, waitress. Quick on her feet, quicker with a remark, never puts the tray down.
- Cedric Haddow, tea merchant and contest rival. Waxed mustache, silver tie pin, lets you know he has a better blend at home.
- Rosalind Faye, singer with the dance band. Sequins, a hoarse low voice, and a laugh that does not reach her eyes.
- Wilfred Oddy, baker at the Kittiwake. Flour in his eyebrows, slow and gentle, and devoted to Mrs. Kittredge.
The places: the kitchen, the dining room, the pantry and the yard.
The means: the spare key, a hairpin, the sugar tongs and the cake knife.
Case 6 · Saturday, October 31
The questioning room
This case's night is Saturday, October 31, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: When one person lies, find the collision
A case with a single liar is solved by collision. Lay every claim on the board in pencil and look for two that cannot both stand, such as two people in one room. The liar is one of those two. Then test each: assume they lie, flip their claims, and see whether the honest testimony survives. The guess that breaks something is wrong, and the other one is your liar. Only then flip the liar's words and use them.
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 Sunday, November 1, the night after it opens.