The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 7 · Sunday cold case ·
The Keeper's Logbook
Three years ago the Merrow Light went dark for forty minutes. Tonight the missing page came home.
The case file
Sunday cold case. Three years ago, on the night of the October gale, the Merrow Light on Fogbell Point went dark at 11:20 for forty minutes, and the schooner Marigold ran onto the Harrow Bar. The crew waded ashore. The assistant keeper, Jory Penrose, vanished that night and was written down as drowned. The logbook page for the night was torn out.
This week the page turned up inside a hymnal at the St. Brannoc's jumble sale, in Jory's hand. Five people were on the Point at 11:20: in the lamp room, the watch room, the oil store, the keeper's cottage and at the boat slip. Each had hands on one of the wick hood, the vent damper, the oil valve, the weight cord and the pump bucket. The old statements are in the file. The guilty party lied then and lies now.
Who was there
- Amos Trewin, head keeper of the Merrow Light. Thirty years on the Point, and he wears that night like a second coat.
- Hester Trewin, the keeper's wife. Small, steady, watches the sea while she talks to you.
- Davey Lusk, relief keeper. Twenty that night, and ten years older since.
- Pascoe Grigg, coal merchant. Coal under every fingernail, and a laugh too loud for the room.
- Lionel Fairweather, shipping agent for the Marigold. Good overcoat, careful vowels, a habit of answering the question he wishes you had asked.
The places: the lamp room, the watch room, the oil store, the keeper's cottage and the boat slip.
The means: the wick hood, the vent damper, the oil valve, the weight cord and the pump bucket.
Case 7 · Sunday, November 1
The questioning room
This case's night is Sunday, November 1, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Five suspects: let the honest majority build the board
A Sunday file has more people and fewer favors. With one liar among five, any collision between two claims means the other three are honest, and three honest witnesses usually fill most of the board on their own. Build it from them, then test the two suspects in the collision against the physical evidence. The cold-case habit worth keeping is this: old statements are still statements, and a lie told three years ago has to fit the same board as the truth.
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 Monday, November 2, the night after it opens.