The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 26 · Locked room ·
The Harbormaster's Strongroom
A strongroom with a time lock that never opened, a register with one page missing, and three ways in that do not need a door.
The case file
Friday. The strongroom of the Port Merrow Harbor Office keeps the register of every berth and lease in the harbor. Its door has a time lock that records each opening, and the record shows none between six last night and eight this morning. But at eight the register lay open on the table and one page was gone: the page for Fogbell Point.
There are three other ways into that room, and last night four people were each close to one of the four: the strongroom door, the air vent from the yard, the floor trap from the boat cellar and the record hoist from the office above. Each had one thing to hand: the strongroom key, a dark lantern, a pry bar or a heaving line.
Who was there
- Captain Hosea Penberthy, harbormaster. Brass buttons, a voice for gales, and the strongroom key on a chain at his waist.
- Miss Lowenna Trethowan, deputy harbormaster. Precise, sea-booted, and the only one in the office who understands the filing.
- Jack Angove, harbor pilot. Easy smile, rope-burned palms, and a new gold tooth.
- Bennet Caddy, night watchman. Seventy, slow on his feet, and quick with his lantern shutter.
The places: the strongroom door, the air vent, the floor trap and the record hoist.
The means: the strongroom key, a dark lantern, a pry bar and a heaving line.
Case 26 · Friday, November 20
The questioning room
This case's night is Friday, November 20, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A sealed room has a floor and a ceiling
When the walls of a room are watched, look up and look down. Cellars, attics, hoists, vents, chutes and trap doors connect rooms that look sealed, and they are easy to forget because nobody walks through them. Ask what is above and what is below, and who was there. Then look for what the climb left behind: mud, dust, a scratch or a bent hasp.
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 Saturday, November 21, the night after it opens.