The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 10 · Forged document ·
The Harbor Board Minutes
A ninety-nine year lease, a vote that never happened, and a page in the minute book that does not quite match the rest.
The case file
Wednesday. This morning's Gazette, under Cass Rendle's name, reported that the Port Merrow Harbor Board had voted on Monday to lease Berth 9 to Heron Holdings for ninety-nine years. The chair says no such vote was taken. The minute book says it was, in the clerk's hand, on a page that was not there on Friday.
Four people had the minute book within reach on Tuesday evening, one in each of the board room, the clerk's office, the print shop below and the library reading room. Each had a tool that could have written or tipped in a page: a steel dip pen, a fountain pen, a bone folder or a binder's needle. The page is on the desk as Exhibit A. Find who forged it, with what and where.
Who was there
- Miss Ottoline Vane, clerk to the Harbor Board. Steel spectacles, steel nerves, and a hand so neat it looks engraved.
- Barnaby Treloar, ship owner and Board member. Gold watch chain, a red face and a laugh he uses instead of answers.
- Mrs. Dorcas Penhaligon, town librarian. Cardigan, pencil in her bun, and the patience of someone who mends old books.
- Felix Amory, printer's apprentice at the Gazette. Ink to the wrists, a cap pushed back, and too eager by half.
The places: the board room, the clerk's office, the print shop and the reading room.
The means: a steel dip pen, a fountain pen, a bone folder and a binder's needle.
Case 10 · Wednesday, November 4
The questioning room
This case's night is Wednesday, November 4, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A document has two witnesses: what it says and what it is
Read a forged document twice. The first time, read what it says, and believe none of it. The second time, read what it is made of: the ink, the paper, the stitching, the signature. Materials rarely lie, and each one usually points at a place or a tool. Then find the person who stood in that place holding that tool.
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 Thursday, November 5, the night after it opens.