The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 9 · Locked room ·
The Customs House Seal
A lead seal still whole, a crate of Saltholm silk a bolt lighter, and four ways in that nobody was meant to use.
The case file
Tuesday, 10:00 pm. The bonded store at the Port Merrow Customs House was sealed at six with a lead seal on its only door, and the seal was still whole at ten. Inside, a crate of Saltholm silk was one bolt lighter: $220 of watered blue.
There are four other ways into that room, and on the night shift four people were each close to one of them: the coal chute, the skylight on the roof, the cellar hatch and the office window. Each had something in hand that would get a person through: a coil of rope, a ladder, a crowbar or the night officer's keyring. Find who went in, by which way, with what.
Who was there
- Officer Wendell Thorne, night officer of the Customs House. Brass buttons polished to a glare, and a keyring he touches like a rosary.
- Bridget Moran, cleaner at the Customs House. Quick and quiet, mop bucket and all, and misses nothing on a floor.
- Lewis Carrack, shipping clerk working late. Ink on his cuff, a cold cup of coffee at his elbow, a smile that comes a beat late.
- Sam Teague, coal man. Black to the elbows, cheerful, and built like a coal sack himself.
The places: the coal chute, the skylight, the cellar hatch and the office window.
The means: a coil of rope, a ladder, a crowbar and the night keyring.
Case 9 · Tuesday, November 3
The questioning room
This case's night is Tuesday, November 3, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: In a locked room, the door is a distraction
Every locked-room case invites you to stare at the lock. Instead, write each way in across the top of the board as if it were a place, and ask who stood near it. Then rule out the ways that are truly shut, from the case file. The answer is usually the way in that someone had a reason to be near and a thing in hand to use it.
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 Wednesday, November 4, the night after it opens.