The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 13 · Alibi web ·
The Lantern Society Raffle
A church hall full of paper lanterns, a raffle tin that came back light, and one helper who is not telling the truth.
The case file
Saturday, 8:45 pm. The Port Merrow Lantern Society held its raffle in St. Brannoc's church hall, under two hundred paper lanterns made for next week's walk along the harbor wall. While the numbers were called, the raffle tin, $84 in dimes and dollar bills, went from full to empty without anyone seeing it go.
Four helpers were in the hall, one at each of the raffle table, the stage, the vestry passage and the porch. Each had one thing that could hide a fistful of money: a knitting bag, a paper lantern, a bundled surplice or the ticket drum. Nobody touched the tin while it sat in the stage lights, so it did not happen on the stage. Three of the helpers are telling you the truth. The one who emptied the tin is lying about everything.
Who was there
- Mrs. Hattie Crowle, treasurer of the Lantern Society. Needles clicking, spectacles on a chain, and figures to the penny in her head.
- Toby Bligh, lamplighter. Long arms, a pole over one shoulder, and soot on the back of his neck.
- Rev. Lucius Seward, curate of St. Brannoc's. Young, earnest, and still wearing his cassock from evensong.
- Peggy Dunn, florist's girl, calling the numbers. A clear loud voice, a sprig of heather in her buttonhole, and no patience at all.
The places: the raffle table, the stage, the vestry passage and the porch.
The means: a knitting bag, a paper lantern, a bundled surplice and the ticket drum.
Case 13 · Saturday, November 7
The questioning room
This case's night is Saturday, November 7, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Turn the liar's words inside out
Once you know who is lying, their statements are not noise. Every claim they made is false, and a false claim is information: if the liar says she was on the stage, she was not; if she says she lent the bag away, she kept it. Write each of the liar's claims on the board as its opposite, and the last squares usually fill themselves.
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 8, the night after it opens.