The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 38 · Forged document ·
The Lifeboat Draw
A Christmas draw for the lifeboat, a winning number called from the platform, and two tickets that both say 471.
The case file
Wednesday, 8:40 pm. The Lifeboat Fund held its Christmas draw at the Assembly Rooms, and at eight the coxswain drew ticket 471 for the prize: a hamper and $50. Nobody came forward. At half past, a boy brought up ticket 471 and said a man at the door had given him a nickel to claim it. At 8:40 old Mrs. Hannah Spry came in from the snow with another 471, her own, and her name on the counterfoil.
The boy's ticket had been altered after the draw. In that half hour four people were about the building, one each on the platform, in the committee room, in the cloakroom and in the lobby. Each had one thing that could change a printed number: a bottle of ink eradicator, a razor blade, a typewriter eraser or a fountain pen. Examine the ticket, then find who, with what, and where.
Who was there
- Miss Phyllis Ivey, secretary of the Lifeboat Fund. Spectacles on a chain, a typewriter eraser in her pocket, and a ledger for everything.
- Abel Trevaskis, coxswain of the Port Merrow lifeboat. Thirty rescues, a beard like a gale, and very uneasy in a stiff collar.
- Linus Crale, crime reporter for the Saltholm Clarion. Snow melting off his camel coat, and a fountain pen already writing your answer down.
- Reginald Yeo, clerk at Penwith's, the stationer, who printed the tickets. Neat, pale, ink on his cuffs, and a ticket of his own in his waistcoat pocket.
The places: the platform, the committee room, the cloakroom and the lobby.
The means: a bottle of ink eradicator, a razor blade, a typewriter eraser and a fountain pen.
Case 38 · Wednesday, December 2
The questioning room
This case's night is Wednesday, December 2, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: An altered number keeps its old digits
Changing a figure on paper always leaves something: a scraped surface, a bleached patch, a stroke that sits on top of another. When a document has been altered rather than invented, ask what it said before, and who had a ticket, a page or a check that read that way. The original value is often a name in disguise.
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 Thursday, December 3, the night after it opens.