The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 20 · Locked room ·
The Hotel Safe
A brooch in an envelope, a manager's office locked all evening, and four gaps in its walls that nobody thought to count.
The case file
Saturday, midnight. At the Grand Marine Hotel, guests' valuables go through a slot in the brass deposit grille into a wire basket inside the manager's office, and the manager locks them in the safe at midnight. At 9:30 Mrs. Delphine Ashcombe posted her emerald brooch in a sealed envelope. At midnight the basket was there and the envelope was not. The office had been locked since six, and the manager had the only key in his pocket at the theater.
There are four gaps into that office, and four people were each beside one of them: the deposit grille, the dumbwaiter hatch, the transom over the office door and the door from the linen room. Each had one thing to hand: a window pole, the master key, a step stool or a pair of fire tongs. The transom has been painted shut since spring.
Who was there
- Horace Pym, night clerk. Oiled hair, a pen behind his ear, and a voice like a polite cough.
- Danny Rusk, bellboy. Brass buttons, a pillbox hat under his arm, and a grin he is trying to hide.
- Agnes Tregear, chambermaid. Starched cap, red knuckles, and the master key on a ribbon round her neck.
- Basil Fennimore, traveling salesman of safe locks. Loud check suit, a sample case, and a professional interest in other people's locks.
The places: the deposit grille, the dumbwaiter hatch, the transom and the linen room door.
The means: a window pole, the master key, a step stool and a pair of fire tongs.
Case 20 · Saturday, November 14
The questioning room
This case's night is Saturday, November 14, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A grille, a hatch or a slot is a door
People who say a room is locked usually mean its door is. List every gap in its walls, however small: a slot, a grille, a hatch, a vent, a transom. Ask what could pass through each, a hand, a hook, a pole, an envelope, and who stood beside it. The smallest gap is often the one nobody bothered to guard.
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 15, the night after it opens.