The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 36 · Locked room ·
The Bank Night Safe
A night safe in the bank wall, a locked vault room behind it, and a pouch of Christmas takings that never saw morning.
The case file
Monday, 9:00 pm. The Merrow Savings Bank on Fore Street has a night safe in its wall: shopkeepers drop their takings down a brass chute into a bag in the locked vault room. At eight Marwood's dropped the day's pouch, $310. At nine the watchman made his round and found the bag slit and the pouch gone. The vault room door was still locked.
Frost had sealed the chute's brass flap since half past eight, so nobody fished the pouch up it from the street. There are three other ways into the vault room: the watchman's keys, the coal hatch from the cellar and the assistant manager's private stair from the flat above. Four people were about the bank, one each in the watchman's lodge, the cellar, at the street door and in the flat, and each could reach the vault by one way. Find whose way was used.
Who was there
- Elijah Warne, night watchman at the bank. Sixty, slow, deliberate, and proud of never once being late on a round in nineteen years.
- Jacky Dingle, coal heaver, on a late delivery. Black to the eyebrows, cheerful about it, and the strongest man you will meet this week.
- Mrs. Tilly Rescorla, confectioner on Fore Street. Sugar on her sleeves, a sharp eye for a short weight, and a shop next door to the bank.
- Humphrey Annear, assistant manager, who lives above the bank. Carpet slippers, a velvet smoking jacket, and the soft hands of a man who counts other people's money.
The places: the watchman's lodge, the cellar, the street door and the flat above.
The means: the watchman's keys, the coal hatch, the night safe chute and the private stair.
Case 36 · Monday, November 30
The questioning room
This case's night is Monday, November 30, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: Close the doors before you look for the thief
A locked room case is a list of ways in. Shut every way you can before you think about people: a frozen flap, a key that never leaves a belt, a floor with no coal dust. Each place usually reaches the room by one way only, so once a way is proven, the place goes with it, and the person in that place goes with the place.
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, December 1, the night after it opens.