The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 39 · Timeline ·
The Toll Ticket
A trunk call to Saltholm at 6:40, a paper ticket on a spike, and four operators who each took the trunk board for an hour.
The case file
Thursday, 10:00 pm. On Tuesday at 6:40 pm someone in Port Merrow placed a trunk call to the night desk of the Saltholm Clarion, and Linus Crale had his story about the pudding club by morning. Every trunk call leaves a toll ticket on the spike at the exchange, with the number it came from. The ticket for 6:40 is gone.
The trunk board was worked in one-hour turns that night, from 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00, by four operators, one turn each. The supervisor saw the 6:40 ticket on the spike at 7:55, so it went on the 8:00 or the 9:00 turn. Each operator kept one thing at her position that could swallow a slip of paper: a library book, a pair of gloves, a powder compact or the stove. Put the turns in order, then find who took it, into what, and when.
Who was there
- Miss Annie Jolly, telephone operator. The bright voice from the mission supper, now with a library book open on her knee.
- Miss Doris Eddy, telephone operator. Precise, unsmiling, with gloves on at the board because her hands get cold.
- Miss Stella Harvey, telephone operator. Marcel waves, a new coat she cannot afford, and a scent you notice before she speaks.
- Miss Olive Bennetts, night operator. Gray cardigan, a shawl over it, and the patience of a woman who works till six in the morning.
In order: the 6:00 turn (6:00), the 7:00 turn (7:00), the 8:00 turn (8:00) and the 9:00 turn (9:00).
The means: a library book, a pair of gloves, a powder compact and the stove.
Case 39 · Thursday, December 3
The questioning room
This case's night is Thursday, December 3, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A sighting splits the line
When someone saw the thing safe at a certain time, draw a line across your list of turns at that moment. Everything before it is cleared at once, however suspicious. In a short line that can halve the board before anyone answers a question, and the person who handed over just before the line is often the best witness you have.
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, December 4, the night after it opens.