The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 23 · Timeline ·
The Coal Barge Schedule
Four barges, four slots on the new schedule, and a coal heap two tons short by dawn.
The case file
Tuesday night. Under the Harbor Board's new schedule, four coal barges unload at the town wharf overnight, one in each slot: 11:00 pm, 12:30 am, 2:00 am and 3:30 am. The coal goes onto the town heap, which keeps the almshouses and the gasworks through the winter. At dawn the heap was two tons short.
Each barge master had one thing alongside to move coal: a coal cart, a tip wagon, a hand barrow or a lighter, a small open boat. The night watchman measured the heap at midnight, after the first barge, and it was full. Somebody took two tons on their own slot. Put the barges in order and find whose.
Who was there
- Mrs. Ada Spargo, master of the barge Primrose. Widowed young, and has run her husband's barge for ten years better than he did.
- Bill Hocking, master of the barge Ellen. Big, slow and friendly, with coal dust in every crease of him.
- Captain Joss Tremayne, master of the Saltholm barge Comet. Neat beard, a Saltholm accent, and no friends on this wharf.
- Dick Rosevear, master of the barge Gleaner. Young, quick, and quicker to blame the Saltholm man.
In order: the 11:00 slot (11:00 pm), the 12:30 slot (12:30 am), the 2:00 slot (2:00 am) and the 3:30 slot (3:30 am).
The means: a coal cart, a tip wagon, a lighter and a hand barrow.
Case 23 · Tuesday, November 17
The questioning room
This case's night is Tuesday, November 17, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Order the things, then the people
In a timeline, a clue about the things people carried is as good as a clue about the people. If the tip wagon came before the lighter, and you know who had the wagon, you have ordered a person. Write the things into the time slots as freely as the names, and every fact about who carried what becomes a fact about when.
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 18, the night after it opens.