The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 33 · Forged document ·
The Visitor's Pass
A visitor's pass that Grane never signed, ten minutes with Ambrose Kell, and a reporter from Saltholm who wanted those ten minutes himself.
The case file
Friday, 7:10 pm. Ambrose Kell waits in the cells under the Harbor Station for the Saltholm Assizes in January, and nobody sees him without a pass signed by Chief Inspector Grane. At seven, a visitor in a gray coat and a veil handed the turnkey a pass, had ten minutes at Kell's grille, and was gone into the snow before anyone thought to look at it twice. Grane signed no pass today.
Between six and seven, four people were in the building, one each in the front office, the records room, the cell passage and the waiting room. Each had one thing at hand that could copy a signature: a sheet of carbon paper, a pad of flimsy, a copying pencil or the turnkey's old blotter. One of them made the pass. Examine it, then find who, with what, and where.
Who was there
- Linus Crale, crime reporter for the Saltholm Clarion. Camel coat, a smile with too many teeth, and a pad of flimsy he writes on while you talk.
- Cass Rendle, gazette columnist and inquiry agent. A gray cloche, a copying pencil, and no patience at all for the man from Saltholm.
- Wilfred Jago, clerk at the Harbor Station. Sleeve garters, ink on one finger, and a voice pitched so as not to bother anyone.
- Sid Laity, night turnkey. Keys on a ring the size of a dinner plate, and the face of a man who just got told off.
The places: the front office, the records room, the cell passage and the waiting room.
The means: a sheet of carbon paper, a pad of flimsy, a copying pencil and the turnkey's old blotter.
Case 33 · Friday, November 27
The questioning room
This case's night is Friday, November 27, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A document names its own room
Forms come from books, books are kept in rooms, and a number out of sequence is evidence of where a page was not taken from. When an exhibit carries a serial number, a stub or a batch mark, ask which drawer it came out of. Ruling out one place for the act is often the last push the board needs once everyone else is placed.
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 28, the night after it opens.