The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 43 · Misdirection ·
The Glass Slipper
A first night of Cinderella, a slipper of real cut glass, and a reviewer who solved it before the curtain came down.
The case file
Monday, 9:50 pm. The Lyceum's Cinderella opened tonight with its famous prop: a slipper of real cut glass, made in Saltholm for the 1900 production. At the interval it went from the prop table, and Cinderella tried on a slipper of painted tin in Act Two. Linus Crale was in the stalls, and his review names the comic who plays the Ugly Sister.
Four people were backstage in the twenty minutes, one each in the wings, the green room, the dressing rooms and the wardrobe room. Each had one thing that could hide a slipper: a papier-mache pumpkin, a fur muff, a hatbox or a sewing basket. Find who took it, in what, and where.
Who was there
- Ambrose Pyne, comic, plays the Ugly Sister. Greasepaint to the collar, debts to half the town, and a hatbox he never lets out of his sight.
- Miss Rosalind Carew, cinderella. Ball gown, a fur muff for the cold wings, and a tin slipper she will not forgive.
- Silas Bolitho, stage manager. Shirt sleeves, a prompt book, and a letter in his pocket from a man in Saltholm who wants his job.
- Mrs. Hester Kitto, wardrobe mistress. Pins in her mouth, a tape at her neck, and the only person who has mended the Ugly Sister twice tonight.
The places: the wings, the green room, the dressing rooms and the wardrobe room.
The means: a papier-mache pumpkin, a fur muff, a hatbox and a sewing basket.
Case 43 · Monday, December 7
The questioning room
This case's night is Monday, December 7, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: A review is not a verdict
When someone has named the culprit before you have looked, treat the name as a rumor and not a clue. Put the accused on the board like anyone else. Ask what was heard, carried or moved during the act itself, and let that thing find its owner. Very often the person who carried the evidence never knew they had it.
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 8, the night after it opens.