The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 16 · Forged document ·
The Ferry Ticket
Forty forged return tickets, a clerk suspended on a reporter's word, and one buff card that knows where it was made.
The case file
Tuesday. Forty forged return tickets for the Saltholm ferry have been sold on the quay this month at half price, and last night the purser seized one from a boy on the 6:10 crossing. It is Exhibit A. Cass Rendle wrote in this morning's Gazette that the forger is the ticket clerk, and the Steam Packet Company has suspended him.
Four people could have made the forgeries, and each works in one of four places: the ferry ticket office, the stationer's back room, the Gazette's job print room and the shipping agency on the quay. Each has one tool of the trade at hand: a ticket punch, a rubber stamp set, a hand press or a typewriter. Examine the ticket, question the four, and find who made it, where and how.
Who was there
- Aubrey Kitto, ferry ticket clerk, suspended. Sleeve garters, a pale face, and the look of a man reading about himself in the paper.
- Mrs. Rose Pengelly, stationer on Fore Street. Ink on her cuffs, a pencil in her bun, and a till that rings all day.
- Bram Quiller, job printer at the Gazette. Inky apron, forearms like hams, and a pencil behind each ear.
- Miss Dulcie Sayer, typist at the shipping agency. Bright lipstick, quick fingers, and a new fur collar she can't quite afford.
The places: the ferry ticket office, the stationer's back room, the Gazette job room and the shipping agency.
The means: a ticket punch, a rubber stamp set, a hand press and a typewriter.
Case 16 · Tuesday, November 10
The questioning room
This case's night is Tuesday, November 10, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Ask how a document was made
Before you ask who wrote it, ask how. Printing bites into paper, a stamp sits on top, a typewriter leaves even letters with a ribbon's texture, and a pen leaves a pressure line. Paper has a weight, a weave and sometimes a watermark. Each of these points to a tool or a place, and a tool or a place points to a person.
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 11, the night after it opens.