The Night Desk · Season 1 · Case 29 · Timeline ·
The Last Tide Tables
Finale, part two. One figure in a page of type, changed between proof and press, and a boat that would have gone aground.
The case file
Monday. On Sunday night the Harbor Board's tide tables for December were set in type at the Gazette job room. The forme, the locked frame of type, passed through four pairs of hands at four times: 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00. Each person handled it once and had one tool in hand: a planing mallet, a blue pencil, a pair of tweezers or a hatpin.
This morning's printed sheets give high water at Fogbell causeway on December 6, the keepers' relief night, two hours late. A boat sailing by them would run onto the Harrow Bar, and the tables go before the Harbor Board tomorrow night as proof of whether the Point can be supplied at all. The proof pulled and initialed at the end of the 9:00 turn shows the right figure, so the type was still right after the first two turns.
Who was there
- Winnie Tull, compositor at the Gazette. Ink to the elbows, and she reads type upside down and backward faster than you read forward.
- Miss Ottoline Vane, clerk to the Harbor Board. Steel spectacles, steel nerves, and the Board's figures checked twice.
- Miss Verity Locke, secretary to Ambrose Kell. Gloves she never takes off, a shorthand pad, and perfect manners.
- Cass Rendle, gazette columnist and inquiry agent. Coat still wet from the quay, and the look of someone nearly at the end of a long story.
In order: the 8:00 turn (8:00 pm), the 9:00 turn (9:00 pm), the 10:00 turn (10:00 pm) and the 11:00 turn (11:00 pm).
The means: a planing mallet, a blue pencil, a pair of tweezers and a hatpin.
Case 29 · Monday, November 23
The questioning room
This case's night is Monday, November 23, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Not next to is a clue too
A clue that says two people were not side by side feels weak, but at the end of a short line it is strong. Try each open slot for the person it names and see what it leaves for everyone else. Often only one slot leaves room for the other clues, especially a hinge that needs two neighbors. Test, then cross out.
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 Tuesday, November 24, the night after it opens.