The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 40 · Locked room ·
The Singing Bird
A gilt cage, a clockwork bird that sings when wound, and a glass cabinet that was locked before and after it went.
The case file
Friday, 5:20 pm. The prize of Quick's Toy Shop on Tidewater Street is a clockwork singing bird in a gilt cage, too lovely not to show. It lives in a glass cabinet built into the wall between the shop and the workshop. At five Mr. Oswald Quick shut the shop for twenty minutes to change the window, and at 5:20 the cabinet was locked and the cage was empty.
The dust on the front lock was unbroken, so nobody used the key. There are three other ways into the cabinet: its sliding back from the workshop, its glass top from the window platform, and the drawer in its plinth from the stockroom side. Four people were in the shop, one each on the shop floor, in the workshop, in the window and in the stockroom, and each could reach the cabinet one way. Find whose way was used.
Who was there
- Oswald Quick, owner of Quick's Toy Shop. Half-moon spectacles, a cardigan with a tin soldier in the pocket, and grief worn very politely.
- Hubert Noall, clockmaker who services the bird. A jeweler's loupe on a ribbon, very clean hands, and a buyer in Saltholm who has asked about the bird twice.
- Bryony Quick, mr. Quick's niece, who helps in the shop. Mica snow in her hair, a smile that comes a beat too late, and very new gloves.
- Ned Flamank, errand boy. Fourteen, red ears, and the only person in the shop who has never been allowed to touch the bird.
The places: the shop floor, the workshop, the window and the stockroom.
The means: the cabinet key, the sliding back, the glass top and the plinth drawer.
Case 40 · Friday, December 4
The questioning room
This case's night is Friday, December 4, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A sealed way still marks a place
When each place reaches a room by its own way in, a way that is proven shut clears the person standing in that place, and a way that is proven used convicts them. Pair the places with their ways first. After that, finding who stood where is the same as finding who used what, and one physical trace can settle both.
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, December 5, the night after it opens.