The Night Desk · Season 2 · Case 44 · Locked room ·
The Registered Letter
A registered envelope, an unbroken wax seal, a locked cage, and five hundred dollars turned into newspaper.
The case file
Tuesday, 7:20 pm. Mrs. Gwen Truscott came to the post office for a registered letter from her son, a steward at sea, with his Christmas money inside. The postmaster unlocked the cage, the counter clerk handed it over, and Mrs. Truscott opened it at the counter. The wax seal was unbroken. Inside was newspaper, cut to the size of five hundred dollars.
The letter came in with the two o'clock mail. It was opened from the bag at the sorting table, entered in the book at the registration desk, locked in the cage at three and handed out at the counter at seven. Four clerks, one at each station, each with one thing to hand: a kettle, a paper knife, a paste pot or a stick of sealing wax. Find where the money went.
Who was there
- Walter Polkinghorne, postmaster. Gold watch chain, the cage key on it, and thirty years without a lost letter.
- Miss Ada Curnow, counter clerk. Quick fingers, a pencil behind her ear, and the face Mrs. Truscott saw first.
- Herbert Chegwidden, registration clerk. Sleeve guards, a careful hand, and a mother in the infirmary with a doctor to pay.
- Mrs. Nell Hambly, sorter. Fingerless gloves, a voice like a foghorn, and four thousand Christmas cards a day.
The places: the sorting table, the registration desk, the cage and the counter.
The means: a kettle, a paper knife, a paste pot and a stick of sealing wax.
Case 44 · Tuesday, December 8
The questioning room
This case's night is Tuesday, December 8, from midnight your time. The questioning room plays here with JavaScript on; the case file above reads without it.
The inspector's note: When the room is truly locked, move the clock
If the walls, the lock and the key all hold, stop asking how someone got in. Ask where the thing was before it was locked away, and who handled it on its way there. A sealed room proves only that nothing happened inside it during the hours it was sealed. The crime may have walked in already done.
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 Wednesday, December 9, the night after it opens.