The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 32 · Timeline ·
The Thanksgiving Supper
Thanksgiving at the Seamen's Mission, four turns at the door, and a collection tin that rattled at a quarter to six and not after.
The case file
Thursday, Thanksgiving. The Seamen's Mission on the Quay served supper from five to seven to anyone in Port Merrow with nowhere else to eat it. By the door stood the tin for the Christmas Fund, and four volunteers took the door in half-hour turns: 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 6:30, one turn each. At 7:00 the superintendent opened the tin to count it and found $9 in pennies where there had been nearer $60.
At 5:45 he had lifted the tin himself and found it heavy, so it was emptied on the 6:00 or the 6:30 turn. Each volunteer brought one thing from the kitchen to the door: a soup ladle, a nutcracker, a butter knife or a pie server. Somebody worked the money out through the slot. Put the four turns in order, then find who, with what, and when.
Who was there
- Joss Penna, fisherman, volunteering for the evening. Scrubbed for the occasion, still smells faintly of the boat, and polite to a fault.
- Miss Annie Jolly, telephone operator at the exchange. Bright voice, tired eyes, a pencil behind one ear out of habit.
- Ernest Hosken, retired schoolmaster. Darned elbows on a good tweed coat, and the patience of forty years of boys.
- Mrs. Wenna Polsue, cook at the mission. Flour to the elbow, a voice that carries over twelve pans, and no time for you.
In order: the 5:00 turn (5:00), the 5:30 turn (5:30), the 6:00 turn (6:00) and the 6:30 turn (6:30).
The means: a soup ladle, a nutcracker, a butter knife and a pie server.
Case 32 · Thursday, November 26
The questioning room
This case's night is Thursday, November 26, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: In a line, the neighbors place themselves
When the places are turns in order and one end is already taken, a pair who handed over to each other has very few places to stand. Count the open slots, place the pair in each way they could fit, and keep only the way that leaves room for every other "before" and "after". A line of three with one pair and one "after" has exactly one answer.
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 Friday, November 27, the night after it opens.